Paying extension through credit cards?

thriftybabe

We are in a very fortunate position that we have no mortgage. We have £51k in savings in various different isa's etc. My oh wants to build an extension commencing in June this year. I do not want to get a mortgage. We have £20k that we are going to use that we have been saving out with the £51k and would like to fund the rest on credit cards approximately £24k. We were going to go for 0% on purchases and stagger each card deal date over 6 - 8 months. Has anyone done something like this before.

BenL

Are you getting a builder to do it or your OH building it?

I've not known many tradesman/builders to accept cards.

Looks like a Virgin SBT to make cash available in your bank account is required.

thriftybabe

My OH is doing most of the work. We have cash for the other tradesmen that we need which we know through the building trade. Also my dad can do the ground works.

BenL

I used my credit card whenever possible when doing my house up.

Things like double glazing, kitchen and boiler I could not put on the CC.

Purchases in a store i could.

I used a cashback card as we had cash to pay it off each month for the whole amount.

You would need a card with a 0% on purchases for a long period - i think 12 or 14 months is the max at the moment, check Martins article for the latest info.

After that its time for Balance Transfer cards until its paid off or life of balance. You just have to hope your ability to get credit doesn't reduce in this tightening economic climate.

A^S

I used a credit card to pay for some work on my house in January. The deposit was free - but for the balance payable on installation in Feb they were going to make a 2% admin charge. So I paid the whole amount as deposit and avoided the additional fee - and since it was an interest free on purchases for 6month card, I still haven't actually paid.
The fitter was bemused as he had never come across anyone without a balance to pay at installation before !

My point is -watch out as many businesses have started to make admin charges for credit card payments for large items.