Credit cards for different purposes

jamels2

Instead of opening multiple current accounts, I wondered about having several credit cards , say one for petrol, one for groceries, one for birthday gifts etc. Maybe 4/5 in total. Pay them off in full. Just a way of tracking spending in each category. Does anyone do this?

JES_F1

Sort of but not to that level of detail.


I use my Amex and Santander All in One credit card for everyday spending for the cashback.


I use my Barclaycard Hilton Honors credit card for several subscriptions (e.g. Netflix) and stays at Hilton hotels for the points.

Ben8282

Don't see why you would want multiple current accounts for this purpose. Unless you have lots of money so you keep nice big balances in each account, splitting your money between current accounts is a recipe for accidental overdrafts and failed direct debits.
There is nothing wrong with your plan as such although it is not the way I choose to do things and not the way I make my selection of what card to use for a particular transaction.

eskbanker

Multiple current accounts are often recommended as a way of mitigating certain risks, such as system outages, accounts being blocked, card loss/theft, etc, but not many would split them for granular budgeting purposes, although many do apparently use the concept of a bills account as a separate entity from accounts for more discretionary spending.

Likewise for credit cards - there are certainly posters who use one card for travel, another for cashback, another for air miles or other rewards, etc, but again probably not to the extent of subdividing to very small pots.

boliston

jamels2 wrote: »

Instead of opening multiple current accounts, I wondered about having several credit cards , say one for petrol, one for groceries, one for birthday gifts etc. Maybe 4/5 in total. Pay them off in full. Just a way of tracking spending in each category. Does anyone do this?

Could be fiddly if you ever buy food at the petrol station or buy a gift while you do your supermarket food shop - i just track it in quickbooks and put most things on my amex as it has the best cashback rate (some places don't take amex so i have another card for those)

dr_adidas01

There are plenty of MSE's that do this myself included, though not to the extent of having 4 or 5 cards for separate spending.

NaughtiusMaximus

I maintain a spreadsheet of all my expenditure which accomplishes the same aim.

I do have 5 credit cards but only use two for normal expenditure, Amex for the majority of purchases, Amazon/New Day for any Amazon purchases plus anywhere which doesn't accept Amex. Of the others I have two 0% balance transfer stooze cards and a Vanquis card I haven't used for about a year.

18cc

You could try looking at the new RBS bo bank account with a debit card which does do quite a good analysis of your spending habits

chattychappy

Sounds good in principle, but are you disciplined enough to stick to it? I mean you're in a queue and fumbling through your cards trying to remember which one you're supposed to use.

And are you going to split purchases - eg you're in Sainsburys with a birthday cake and a bag of carrots... ? Or you're at a petrol station and besides petrol pick up a bunch of flowers as a gift?

Keeping receipts and spreadsheets seem the way to go to me.... Then you can account for cash purchases too.

phillw

Ben8282 wrote: »

splitting your money between current accounts is a recipe for accidental overdrafts and failed direct debits.

Banks have become better at reporting this to you. However I would suggest moving every direct debit you can to the 1st of the month (or as close as possible) so you only have to worry about DD for a small time.

If you have enough DD to get the coop+barclays+halifax monthly bribe then you can practically run those with zero balances. Having lots of credit cards is also a benefit, because each one is a DD.

I wouldn't bother using them for budgeting purposes though. Transactions don't show up straight away, so you could overspend even if you check your balance on your phone in the queue (which is kinda late by that point anyway). There are apps that can analyse your spending, which would work whether you split your spending or not.

jamels2

I think I will just use one then to keep my current account free of clutter. My own bank is nationwide and they have already accepted me for their credit card . I am going to pay in full each month so is there any point looking elsewhere or just using the nationwide one?