Looking for strategic advice on large payment management

RecalcitrantCaprine

Hello MoneySavingExpert Forums! It's my first post and I'm glad to have stumbled across you

Here's the situation:

• I just moved back to the UK from Canada.
• I have just been offered a new job in the UK, starting next week.
• I currently have one UK credit card with a high street bank that I have had for 5 years.
• I have four credit cards in Canada.
• I have several very expensive (wedding level expensive) payments to make in the year ahead, starting in December.
• I want to keep my liquid cash in the bank to use as a deposit on a house in approximately 18-24 months time.

In an ideal world I would be hoping to go out and apply for a credit card with a very lengthy 0% introductory period and a huge credit limit. Then, in a couple of years time when the house is secured and my better half is earning too, we would look at handling the debts we'd parked on the card.

I am guessing that in the slightly less ideal world that we live in this wouldn't be too straightforward in my particular circumstances. If anyone has any advice on a general strategy for how best to handle this sort of scenario, it would be gratefully received. I'm also thinking about specific questions like:

1. How long should I be in the new job before making any applications?
2. Should I prioritise gaining as much credit as possible initially so that the payments can be made on credit and then worry about getting cards with 0% balance transfers periods a little later down the line?
3. Is it possible/advisable to do balance transfers from overseas credit cards? So would there be any merit in paying with canadian cards if required and then transferring to a 0% balance period card once I got hold of one?
4. Am I missing any obvious solutions or problems?

Really appreciate your tiime and thoughts!

jonesMUFCforever

What is your Nationality/tax status?
If you are not a UK citizen then you may find credit on the scale you seem to want difficult to get hold of for at least 3 years.

Running up a lot of debt in the hope of getting a balance transfer card in the future is never a good idea IMO.

I don't know of anybody willing to transfer overseas debt to a UK card.

drp_2

Is your girlfriend Canadian? If not could she apply for a cc to get you started? In fact why don't you get the house then later down the line get married have you seen if you can get a mortgage? If I were you I would think very carefully before applying for credit cards until you have been working here for quite some time. PS this is only my opinion good luck anyhow