Making a credit card work for me abroad

niftythrifty33

Hi, ive been browsing this site for months but not used it until now.
We were in a lot of debt years ago but now have none except a mortgage. But now i want our money to work for us for a change.
In May we are going to Florida (paid for by family) I had intended to save all our spending money first then get dollars or travellers cheques at post office.
But now i have a different idea .
Get a credit card thats free to use abroad ( Nationwide or post office card i believe) use it for everything while we are there.(we will take some dollars)
When i get back transfer the balance onto a 0% credit card .
pay the monthly min payment until near the end of the 0%.
In the meantime put the money i have saved into a good isa ( hopefully we will have about 1,000 by may) let it sit there accumulating interest then when necessary pay off the balance of the 0% card.

Is this a lot of hassle, and how likely am i to get a nationwide or post office card as i dont have any debt (credit cards balances) as ive heard you get penalised for having no debt.
Thanks in advance

King_Of_Fools

The first bit (getting the Nationwide or Post Office card) makes a lot of sense and should be no hassle. Even just spending on the credit card will save you money compared with getting cash or travellers cheques as you will get a much better rate of exchange. This is well recommended. It may also be worth getting a Nationwide cash/debit card so you can get cash in Florida from ATMs for where you cannot use credit cards.

The second part may be more difficult and may not even save you anything. Most 0% cards available also charge a balance transfer fee around 3%. To make your plan worthwhile you would need to deposit your money in a savings account that would earn over 3% after tax over the term of the 0% deal.

i1189

The post office credit card is 0% on purchases for the first 3 months at the moment.

King_Of_Fools

i1189 wrote: »

The post office credit card is 0% on purchases for the first 3 months at the moment.

Same for Nationwide.

trets77

also if you get one or both of thoose cards and then try to get say the M&S card , you might run in to trouble with your credit rating and get refused.

applying for too many cards too quickly puts dents in your score.

Definatly go with the Post office card over Nationwide if you are getting just one IMO , i have both !!! and the speed of issue , customer service , and credit limits of the Post Office card thrash Nationwide's

Had to wait well over a month for the Nationwide card by post. Post Office 5 days all done over the web and so easy

I spent over a hour :mad: :mad: on hold just trying to Activate the Nationwide card, no such problems with Post Office.

I always get through to Post Office card services within a few mins. Nationwide keep you hanging for ages.

Nationwide Gave me a crappy £1000 limit which is totally insufienct for my travelling needs. 5K+ with the Post Office from the start

plus loads of Post office Branches around for paying balances over the Counter .

Post Office A clear winner IMO

wyebird

Don't know about Nationwide, but PO are great. Had card within a week and that included me providing ID and proof of income and I'm self employed. Call centre staff are really nice too :-)

onlyoneme

I've had Nationwide card and they are very good