Best credit card for me

w00519772

I have been stoozing for the last few years and it has affected my credit rating so I have decided to stop. I have paid off the credit card debt of £1,400.

I have a mortgage and the fixed period ends in July 2019. I have savings of about £8K and no debt. What is the best credit card option for me? I guess I do not need interest free credit.

I currently have bank accounts with: Tesco Bank, TSB, HSBC, Halifax and Yorskshire Bank.

I am thinking about a Tesco credit card as I do most of my shopping at Tesco. I use my debit card at the moment.

[Deleted User]

Sounds a good choice.

20aday

If you do the majority of your shopping at Tesco you'd earn the standard 1 point per qualifying £1 on your usual Clubcard transactions and then another 1 point per £4 (of qualifying spend).

Outside of Tesco you'd attract 1 point per £8 of qualifying spend.

You can then "boost" your points when they run their promotion (expect one anytime soon as they'll be sending out the three monthly voucher statement within the next few weeks).

I have the Tesco Credit Card myself and save my vouchers using their Christmas Savers scheme; the year before last I halved my Mum's shopping bill for the Festive period.

w00519772

20aday wrote: »

If you do the majority of your shopping at Tesco you'd earn the standard 1 point per qualifying £1 on your usual Clubcard transactions and then another 1 point per £4 (of qualifying spend).

Outside of Tesco you'd attract 1 point per £8 of qualifying spend.

You can then "boost" your points when they run their promotion (expect one anytime soon as they'll be sending out the three monthly voucher statement within the next few weeks).

I have the Tesco Credit Card myself and save my vouchers using their Christmas Savers scheme; the year before last I halved my Mum's shopping bill for the Festive period.

How does the Tesco credit card compare to the debit card?

20aday

Looking at Tesco's website you earn the same amount of Clubcard points on both their Bank Account and Credit Card(s).

See: http://www.tescobank.com/credit-cards/purchases/index.html and http://www.tescobank.com/current-accounts/

w00519772

20aday wrote: »

Looking at Tesco's website you earn the same amount of Clubcard points on both their Bank Account and Credit Card(s).

See: http://www.tescobank.com/credit-cards/purchases/index.html and http://www.tescobank.com/current-accounts/

That is how I interpreted it when I read the content on those webpages the other day. In that case it is not worth me having a credit card as I already have a debit card. Do you agree?

dreaming

I have this morning applied for a Tesco CC, even though I have also this week opened a Tesco current account (as well as a TSB to place maturing bond monies). My existing card is with Santander but I am struggling to spend enough to cover their increased fee so went with Tesco as they are fee-free. I did briefly toy with not using a credit card at all (I pay it off each month anyway) but like to have one for a) consumer protection on purchases; b) it is there if I ever do need to use it for "major" items such as car/house spending and cash isn't readily available.

w00519772

dreaming wrote: »

I have this morning applied for a Tesco CC, even though I have also this week opened a Tesco current account (as well as a TSB to place maturing bond monies). My existing card is with Santander but I am struggling to spend enough to cover their increased fee so went with Tesco as they are fee-free. I did briefly toy with not using a credit card at all (I pay it off each month anyway) but like to have one for a) consumer protection on purchases; b) it is there if I ever do need to use it for "major" items such as car/house spending and cash isn't readily available.

I am the same. I moved from Santander to Tesco earlier this month. I still have the Santander credit card (0% interest free credit) - until May. Do you think I should close the Santander credit card and open a Tesco credit card? Is it worth waiting until the interest free credit period ends? My balance is: £0, so I guess not.

20aday

w00519772 wrote: »

I am the same. I moved from Santander to Tesco earlier this month. I still have the Santander credit card (0% interest free credit) - until May. Do you think I should close the Santander credit card and open a Tesco credit card? Is it worth waiting until the interest free credit period ends? My balance is: £0, so I guess not.

When do Santander take your Annual Fee? As that's when it'll change from £24 per annum to £3 per month (if you hold the 123 credit card).

Do bear in mind if you opened your account before the 16th September 2015 your cash back rates aren't capped at 3/3/3 per category (it's capped at £9 on travel instead).

But there's nothing to stop you applying for the Tesco credit card (if you wish) before May.

Oh and if you use Quidco they seemingly offer cash back on new Tesco credit card accounts too.

dreaming

w00519772 wrote: »

I am the same. I moved from Santander to Tesco earlier this month. I still have the Santander credit card (0% interest free credit) - until May. Do you think I should close the Santander credit card and open a Tesco credit card? Is it worth waiting until the interest free credit period ends? My balance is: £0, so I guess not.

I still have my Santander current account but it is fully utilised interest-wise (and the fee for that is covered by c/back), so when my fixed bond matured I needed to maximise the interest on that without tying it up for a fixed period - hence the TSB and Tesco accounts. I only really use the credit card for emergencies and the extra protection it offers on larger purchases - I'm not much of a spender:). I did use the Santander CC for groceries and petrol as well (which previously covered the fee with cashback). However, following retirement my petrol consumption reduced quite a lot so to avoid extra shopping just to cover the fee I shopped around (using Martin Lewis's good advice) and decided that Tesco was a good option. There are several cards to choose from - the one I selected has a 0% rate for purchases for 21months. There are good cards as well - it just depends on what you want it for and your shopping habits.