Best deal for "Pay in full each month" user?

YorkshireBoy

rathernot wrote: »

Make the minimum payments each month (does this adversely affect my credit rating?)

The fact that you're only making minimum payments won't affect your credit rating, but your increasing level of debt will. Just how much will depend to a whole host of other things, most notably your income.

Pay it off...whenever I near my credit limit?

No. Stop spending on this card, and start on another one.

Seems an easy way to earn 6.2% on money I'm spending?!

I thought I heard a penny drop!

rathernot

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

The fact that you're only making minimum payments won't affect your credit rating, but your increasing level of debt will. Just how much will depend to a whole host of other things, most notably your income.

Hmm I'd be interested to know what sort of impact we're talking about?

Income (salary) is around £31k a year.

Presumably your credit file doesn't take into account savings/investments?

i.e. your credit rating might suffer because you allow a credit card to get up to £4k even though you are going to be clearing it with part of the £40k you have in savings?

YorkshireBoy

rathernot wrote: »

Hmm I'd be interested to know what sort of impact we're talking about?

Income (salary) is around £31k a year.

I've been accepted for cards when my stoozing 'debt' has been 80-100% of salary. From the spending figures you gave in your OP, I wouldn't be too concerned.

Presumably your credit file doesn't take into account savings/investments?

No, although you can mention them (and provide evidence) in your appeal letter if you're declined.

rathernot

I just signed up for the Experian CreditExpert trial as I was curious what info is out there on me - not having used credit for a while (although I guess by definition the Amex is a form of credit) I wanted to be sure that I am on file as being a good/safe risk.

Basically everything shows as green, all status 0 etc etc.

I am slightly puzzled at several searches shown by Royal Sun Alliance Insurance though.

All I can think is that I've been doing a lot of searching for car insurance today (a couple of show as today) and that they perform some sort of credit check - though that seems unnecessary simply to provide a quote?

I appreciate this will vary, but what sort of credit limits are offered these days? As I've said I'm out of touch and there's no point bothering if it's £1k or something tiny.

YorkshireBoy

rathernot wrote: »

I am slightly puzzled at several searches shown by Royal Sun Alliance Insurance though.

All I can think is that I've been doing a lot of searching for car insurance today (a couple of show as today) and that they perform some sort of credit check - though that seems unnecessary simply to provide a quote?

They're not credit checks. If you look at the search type, it'll say something along the lines of "ID Verification - General Enquiry". Searches of this type are classed as 'unrecorded enquiries', meaning they're not seen by lenders when searching your file for credit purposes.

I appreciate this will vary, but what sort of credit limits are offered these days?

Lenders are tightening up, due to the high levels of bad debt they're experiencing amongst other things.

As I've said I'm out of touch and there's no point bothering if it's £1k or something tiny.

If you have some credit history already, I wouldn't worry about getting such a low limit on your salary.

rathernot

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

They're not credit checks. If you look at the search type, it'll say something along the lines of "ID Verification - General Enquiry". Searches of this type are classed as 'unrecorded enquiries', meaning they're not seen by lenders when searching your file for credit purposes.

Indeed they do (they show as "Unrecorded Enquiry").

I know every company will have their own criteria so arguably it's £6 wasted, but I did pay for their National Credit Score check and it came back with 969/1000.

Anyway, I think I now know all the info I need, it seems to come down to either HSBC or Halifax - sad really when you find yourself thinking which of the card designs is the prettiest

Thanks to everyone who's contributed.

sicker

With Egg Money you can also register with Egg Money Manager which shows all your accounts in one place. Al the paaswords etc. are encrypted and saved on your own computer so no worries there. They use to give you £10 for registering so it would be worth asking if this was still available. Another plus is the ability to withdraw up to £500 per day from a credit balance (obviously £500 + credit balance.)

John

CopperPlate_2

rathernot wrote: »

Indeed they do (they show as "Unrecorded Enquiry").

I know every company will have their own criteria so arguably it's £6 wasted, but I did pay for their National Credit Score check and it came back with 969/1000.

Anyway, I think I now know all the info I need, it seems to come down to either HSBC or Halifax - sad really when you find yourself thinking which of the card designs is the prettiest

Thanks to everyone who's contributed.

If it's card designs you're looking for, rather than the facilities and benefits the card offers, then why didn't you say so in the first place there's a wealth of useless, but beautifully crafted, pieces of plastic out there floating around. You could have any number of gold and platinum cards - all essentially the same with the same useless 'benefits' - that do exactly the same as Halifax and HSBC, but with one added extra benefit - they probably give you could customer service whereas those two (apart from first direct) give generally poor service in my experience.

rathernot

It seems in my situation I don't really care about benefits or APRs or anything other than how long the 0% on new purchases period is over?

Fair point on customer service, only thing I can say to that is that there's always a price to pay for something that's "free", and realistically will I need to have any dealings with them assuming account management is all done online?

CopperPlate_2

Good for you. If it's 0% you're looking for then these two probably offer the best deal at the moment.

Re: customer service. You'd be surprised just how much needs to get done, either by telephone or via online secure messaging that simply DOESN'T get done by some providers. At the end of the day, providers are only good when the going is good - when things need done or things go wrong, then you see how good they really are. Best of luck.