Should I get a credit card

Ben8282

abc.xyz wrote: »

0% CC is great... if you can pay it off in time. OP has £100-£200 disposable income. They can't afford to be paying extortionate CC interest on large balances. Hence why I suggested a loan instead.

A loan will not assist with budgeting which appears to be the purpose of obtaining the credit card. The OP has not expressed a need to borrow money for any purpose.
It is also unclear if this £100-£200 refers to money left over or is the money that the OP has available for shopping and day to day expenses after payment of bills.
My reading of the OP is that this is money left over, to save or spend on whatever takes their fancy.
Certainly if the OP wants to use the credit card for budgeting, it would be a good idea to get one, use it for spending currently made by debit card or cash, keep the money in their bank account maintaining a healthy balance, reducing the risk of accidental overdraft and hopefully earning them a little interest. There are also the added benefits of s75 protection and also a credit card would be useful should the Op wish to rent a car or something similar or check into a hotel where a hold may be placed on funds etc.
A loan would be totally unsuitable for this purpose.
An overdraft facility is a good thing to have so long as it is NEVER used.

kuratowski

I wouldn't be comfortable advising the OP to get a credit card, given what they said (esp "clueless when it comes to credit cards" and "trying to budget better"). I might be barking up the wrong tree, but it *feels like* they are looking to solve their budgeting issues by making more money available through debt.

As Terry Towelling and Ben8282 already said, a sound way to use credit cards is paying in full by direct debit, using the 56 days interest free period as a cash flow buffer. However the risk is this leads very easily to overspending and before you know it you have spent some of next month's pay before you've even earned it.

My best advice to OP is to read up on budgeting matters - there is an MSE guide, and there are some helpful threads in the budgeting and bank accounts board (I remember some very good posts by enthusiasticsaver), and there is guidance elsewhere on the web too. It would help to track your spending for ~3 months (I know it sounds boring but it's really valuable to know accurately) and then post your SOA on the DFW board.

The last thing I would do is to take out any debt.

abc.xyz

Ben8282 wrote: »

A loan will not assist with budgeting which appears to be the purpose of obtaining the credit card. The OP has not expressed a need to borrow money for any purpose.
It is also unclear if this £100-£200 refers to money left over or is the money that the OP has available for shopping and day to day expenses after payment of bills.
My reading of the OP is that this is money left over, to save or spend on whatever takes their fancy.
Certainly if the OP wants to use the credit card for budgeting, it would be a good idea to get one, use it for spending currently made by debit card or cash, keep the money in their bank account maintaining a healthy balance, reducing the risk of accidental overdraft and hopefully earning them a little interest. There are also the added benefits of s75 protection and also a credit card would be useful should the Op wish to rent a car or something similar or check into a hotel where a hold may be placed on funds etc.
A loan would be totally unsuitable for this purpose.
An overdraft facility is a good thing to have so long as it is NEVER used.

Of course. I said a CC is fine if the OP can pay it off each month. I would never suggest a loan for everyday spending. But I would never suggest a CC for long-term spending either, in case that's what the OP is thinking about. There is too much temptation to pay the minimum amount each month. Then before you know it, the 0% offer ends and the interest starts kicking in. At least with a loan there is a set amount that you have to put aside each month to pay off.

bris

Credit cards are excellent.............for spiralling into a constant debt cycle that can takes years if ever to get out of.

Your circumstances fit that bill, you will end up with your CC limit at it's max and struggling to meet the minimum payment every month, just like the hundreds of millions of us all over the world.

If you can soldier on do it without one, the CC interest will just be another burden.

P.s everyone can pay it of every month, until they can't then the sh*****t hits the fan.

A_Lert

Do you think you can be disciplined financially? Can you limit yourself to borrowing for what you need and refrain from borrowing to get things you want? If so, I'd say a credit card is probably a good idea. It's a cheaper way to borrow than overdrafts or the dreaded payday loans and it can help build a credit record. But reserve it for emergency/crisis use.

2e0arr

Sophie123456 are you reading the thread you started please ??

Smodlet

kuratowski wrote: »

I wouldn't be comfortable advising the OP to get a credit card, given what they said (esp "clueless when it comes to credit cards" and "trying to budget better"). I might be barking up the wrong tree, but it *feels like* they are looking to solve their budgeting issues by making more money available through debt.

As Terry Towelling and Ben8282 already said, a sound way to use credit cards is paying in full by direct debit, using the 56 days interest free period as a cash flow buffer. However the risk is this leads very easily to overspending and before you know it you have spent some of next month's pay before you've even earned it.

My best advice to OP is to read up on budgeting matters - there is an MSE guide, and there are some helpful threads in the budgeting and bank accounts board (I remember some very good posts by enthusiasticsaver), and there is guidance elsewhere on the web too. It would help to track your spending for ~3 months (I know it sounds boring but it's really valuable to know accurately) and then post your SOA on the DFW board.

The last thing I would do is to take out any debt.

Can't say it any better than that. CC's are for emergencies only, imho. It is nice to know they are there (at 0% in the main) but they are absolutely not to be used for anything other than short term loans for online purchases or those pesky emergencies and only then, if you have no other alternative or don't want to empty your savings account.

2e0arr wrote: »

Sophie123456 are you reading the thread you started please ??

Yeah! Please tell me this is not another one of those surveys-for-free posts. If so, I'm out.

18cc

No, you shouldn't get a credit card. Thank you for listening.

Terry_Towelling

Just read through Sophie123456's other threads and only once has she bothered to make more than one post in one of her threads. There is also a common theme running through them and, dare I say it (for fear of sanction by the forum police), could she be a different sort of 'benign' troll. I think we should always ask her for more detail before we venture to give her any reply in future.

If you're reading, Sophie, let us know what you think of that approach.

PS, stop jumping red lights, be more careful at pedestrian crossings and don't worry about small squeaks from your car.

Smodlet

Terry_Towelling wrote: »

Just read through Sophie123456's other threads and only once has she bothered to make more than one post in one of her threads. There is also a common theme running through them and, dare I say it (for fear of sanction by the forum police), could she be a different sort of 'benign' troll. I think we should always ask her for more detail before we venture to give her any reply in future.

If you're reading, Sophie, let us know what you think of that approach.

PS, stop jumping red lights, be more careful at pedestrian crossings and don't worry about small squeaks from your car.

Not sure what the car references mean but I think you are saying we have all wasted our time, again; such is forum life, I guess.