interest free credit card?

dgunn

hi guys this may be a stupid question but when it comes to credit cards im just lol no clue!

basically im a student at the moment, and my friend was saying that capital one do a credit card thats interest free for 2 years. this would be great as i would b (hopefully) working full time by then. has anyone heard of this? am i just being dumb or is it like an overdraft where they give you a limit and you dont have to pay anything for two years or will i still have to pay off my b alance every month? thanks for any help sorry if this is a waste of time :j :beer:

melancholly

if you haven't had a credit card before, you may find that getting a 0% one is very hard with no credit history. i had to start with a student credit card with a poor interest rate before i could move onto better ones!

i would recommend extending a student overdraft instead, as the interest free amount on that gets steadily decreased after graduation rather than suddenly getting charged for all your purchases in one go. you can't guarentee you will get a job and be able to pay your card off quickly, so i personally wouldn't recommend that as a fix to financial problems.

Blacksheep1979

you'll have to make a minimal monthly payment on what you owe and if you miss it then they can take away the 0% offer - also as above with no job etc and no credit history I doubt you'll be accepted.

Astraeus

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cards/lowest-interest-credit-cards

There's your 0% interest cards. Given your position, I'd find it highly unlikely that you'd be accepted for any of the cards - especially in the current climate where applications are being binned left, right and centre. More often than not, the 0% interest cards require either an annual income in excess of £10,000 or else a proven credit history and, as neither of these apply to you, it would be worth avoiding the unnecessary searches on your credit file.

If you haven't got an overdraft, take one out. Halifax, RBS, NatWest and HSBC all offer student overdrafts in excess of £1,000. If you already have one, take out another. At one point (in my less financially savvy days as a first-year student), I juggled three student accounts with a combined overdraft limit of £3,700. Whilst I wouldn't recommend this practice as it entices you to spend money you can ill afford, you seem certain in your ability to be able to pay the debt off in the coming years and so it wouldn't panic me if I were to be in your shoes.

It's true what they say, don't get a credit card unless you need one.

St8_2

Yep, you will still have to pay the minimum payments each month, but its just 0% interest. So the money is lent to you for free as you wont be paying interest.

Unless your working I wouldn't reccommend getting 0% credit cards while you are a student. Though, if you can afford to pay the repayments I know egg will accept you as a student. However, the credit limit is poor at just £500.

I suggest, if you can, to open more student accounts. As these have 0% interest overdrafts. So you don't have to pay these off until after you graduate. So if you are 100% certain you will have a job and can pay them off then go for it. However, I have only ever heard of students getting more than one student account. I have tried it myself and have not been successful. They seem to know I already have a student account somewhere else! Which is really annoying because I was planning on using the extra overfraft to put in high interest savings!:rolleyes:

Stubert

Astraeus wrote: »

If you haven't got an overdraft, take one out. Halifax, RBS, NatWest and HSBC all offer student overdrafts in excess of £1,000. If you already have one, take out another. At one point (in my less financially savvy days as a first-year student), I juggled three student accounts with a combined overdraft limit of £3,700. Whilst I wouldn't recommend this practice as it entices you to spend money you can ill afford, you seem certain in your ability to be able to pay the debt off in the coming years and so it wouldn't panic me if I were to be in your shoes.

Its pretty hard to get more than student overdraft. Most of the banks in their T&C's say you can only have one student account. Most do a computer check as far as I'm aware to check. Having more than one overdraft does encourage more debt really! As you tend to think you have money you don't!