Should I keep a CC for emergencies?

ZTD

oakdale_minx wrote:

Thankyou for all the advice. I think I will keep the lowest APR one in the freezer in its tub. It has a £600 limit and will be the ultimate emergency card if I need to buy a ticket or something similar urgently that can only be paid for with a CC.

It won't ever emerge from the back of the freezer unless it is a huge problem and I'll talk to you all about it if it ever happens anyway to get support!

thankyou

To be honest - you've had them frozen for this length of time and there don't seem to have been any mishaps. So you're probably OK with doing that.

janiegs

Ask them to reduce the limit. If your money was stolen on holiday £200 would see you through until the insurance helped out.

beanielou

I would keep it OM

nick1977

misscutiepie1984 wrote:

I used to have a mortgage with my ex and paid a lot of things on credit card and i became 21k in debt on CC, Loans etc..... when we split i cut up my CC paid off my 2k overdraft and am now in a DMP paying of my remainding debt.... but i have NOT taken out any more credit. I have no used any form of credit in the past 2 years.

Hope this makes sense

Amy

Thanks Amy
Sorry I must have appeared a bit nosey!

Nick

I_was_a_fool

I would keep the cc, until I had £600 (or more) in a savings account, then would cut it up. Speaking for myself, I would think twice about using £600 in real money, much more than if it is credit!

newmum1

personally i would say to keep it just in case, if it makes you feel better then lower the limit to say £250 - £300 then you know if you do spend on it then you can afford to pay it off

nemo183

You seem do be doing well. I'd keep it, but reduce the limit. There are some times when you might find it's the only way to pay.

Or, if your credit record will allow it, cancel it and apply for a new card that has a sign - on bonus. Amazon recently offered a £25 voucher to all applicants - worth having.

On the other hand, and on the general topic of credit cards, if an alien landed on earth, he'd find the whole concept of c/c very difficult to understand. The cost of each transaction is tiny, yet the interest rates are massive. In addition to interest, the card vendor extracts at least 1.5% of the transaction value from the seller - sometimes as much as 6%. Even a quick read of c/c terms and conditions will amaze - e.g. whatever the circumstances, any payments made will apply to items bought at the lowest interest rate. Or, an interest free transfer can be made from another card - but with a 2-3% charge of the value of the transfer. Since the transaction cost is around 20p, this extra charge is merely interest by another name.

It would save both time and money, and be easier to understand, if all the credit card companies just reduced their t&c's to "Heads we win, tails you loose".

And finally, just to get this off my chest, has anyone heard the interviews with the piece of pond-life that is trying to promote debit cards for children that can be pre-loaded with money? The kids pay for the card. They pay to put credit on it. They pay an extra fee when they use it. You just could not make it up. I simply cannot understand how anyone who actively promotes this "service" ever sleeps at night.

roswell

Its personnal choice, one option is to get a 0% on purchases card for 12 months, when you get the letter with the pin number chuck it in the bin this way you will have to phone up for your pin if you need to use it in an emergancy, (purchases off websites arent emergancies)

however if you think you will be tempted to just stretch the budget this month and pay it back next month .. oh and just get this and pay it back in 2 months .... then bin the all cards.

Take travelers cheques on holiday.

ancasta_2

I plan on keeping mine as a form of emergency. I shop online alot to buy stock for my business which CANNOT be done in cash so i get extra protection for that, and by the time the bill comes in, the customer has paid for the work and i can pay it off in full.

Also brilliant to take on away days / holidays as an emergency. It travelled to america with me.. and was only used once thankfully (Found it was cheaper to ring barclays, transfer £100 in to my CC account and then withdraw it from that for some reason!)