Good Cards in Northern Ireland

stuart_j

can anyone advise of the best credit cards to have in Northern Ireland.

Chadsman

I'm not in NI but I would guess the same as the rest of the UK.
For cashback try Morgan Stanley 1% up to £2k spend or the Conran Card (an MBNA card) offering 1% cashback (tho this isnt guaranteed)
If you want to start stoozing try Egg... or possibly Virgin.

HTH,
Chadsman

SnowyOwl_2

I think that with some N.Ireland residents there is quite a bit of to-ing and fro-ing with the Euro zone, especially those around the border who pop over regularly for petrol. I know virtually nothing about cc's - is there anyone who could advise which card would be the most efficient with consideration of exchange rates, charges for Euro?

Thanks.

Chadsman

The most often quoted best UK card for spending overseas is Nationwide which does not charge a fee for any foreign currency transactions. The cashback card no longer offers cashback on foreign purchases so the normal non-cashback card will probably be a better bet as it offers up to 56 (???) days interest free compared to the cashback card offerring up to 46 days interest free.

Otherwise Liverpool Victoria does not levy a fee on purchases inside the EU. Lombard have also just launched a new card which doesnt charge on some/all (???) foreign currency transactions.

There may be some NI banks or Eire banks that operate in NI that offer a card that does not levy a fee for spending on either side of the border.

HTH,
Chad

SnowyOwl_2

Thanks Chad

It sounds like the Nationwide one is the way to go, for Euro transactions, and then a second card as per your first post for stoozing or cash back purposes etc. The banks in NI aren't famous for their generous offers or customer friendly accounts - quite the opposite in fact.

sor_fes2

yip, use Nationwide credit card for foreign transactions and then use whichever other card gives you the 'rewards' you want. I currently am using more than but have applied for the citi platinum. Just because you're in N.I. doesn't mean you can't use these other cards. Only problem might be paying the card off, but generally that can be done by direct debit, postal cheque or via the internet so no major problems there.

Though, I did find a problem trying to pay of my more than from my bank of ireland account.... the more than holding account number is 00000000. They said they checked with ALL banks if they would accept this number but of course they forget N.ireland banks! Bank of Ireland will not accept that as a valid account number. Set up a direct debit to take the full amount but means its a hassle if I want to pay in any money to my credit card outside of the balance amount.

Trying to find a cashback card for my dad since he only got offered the citi classic plus card.. More than has reduced their cashback to 0.5% (I'm now not sure if I am still getting 0.8% on it), so looks like either morgan stanley or bank of ireland. Bank of ireland would be handy for him as he could just call into the bank and pay the balance of as he is not into internet banking and I doubt ever will, doesn't want a direct debit set up and then wouldn't have to worry about postal problems and his cheque not arriving in time.