After typing this I realise you can just jump to the last line to get the point, so feel free as you choose.
This is one of those where I'm not sure how people can answer without perhaps divulging more than they might wish, but I'll ask anyway.
Years ago (ten?) we had four or five credit cards. We never put much on them, always paid off each month, and had them really for emergencies (which luckily didn't happen). They kept putting up the credit limit without us asking, and one point we had about 40k available across all the cards.
Eventually the banks wrote one at a time and said they wouldn't be renewing as we were using them too little. Fair enough, and we never bothered again.
Now. I was toying with a car purchase, looking at all the options available from outright cash purchase to pcp, pch or a standard loan of some sort, and thought again about credit cards.
Am I right in thinking the world has moved on, and assuming I were to get through a session in the Star Chamber and be granted a card these days, I would get a limit of £500 if I were lucky and assuming I was a good boy it might be increased to £600 in a year (ie totally worthless for this purpose)?
What kind of limits do they dole out on a new credit card these days?
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Depends who you are. 10k without any questions is certainly possible.
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I've had several (sequentially) where I've been given a credit limit greater than £10k at start. Lenders were Santander, Nationwide, Virgin and MBNA.
MBNA did look across their 'estate' though and reduced limit on one card with their own brand while issuing a new one for Virgin for whom (at the time) they were operator. Subsequently, when they set up their own office I got same again direct from Virgin.
All that though was when I was working and declaring a £40k salary. What they'd let me have now as retired on around half that might be different.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Wed 11 Jun 14 at 11:41
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Ah, that's interesting and much more in line with something sensible. Thanks chaps. I won't discount the idea immediately then.
Unless it's zero percent I assume I'm actually better off taking the money from savings and then paying myself back - although I'd have trouble feeling comfortable with a car sized hole in the savings.
You can tell I'm a financial numpty, which is why I tend to keep everything simple, and based on the old fashioned "save up, then buy it when you can afford it" school, but with (to me) huge amounts like this it takes years to save and then it's blown on a depreciating asset, which seems bonkers too.
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Well you know, I'm pretty much with you there Cc. ( your post crossed with my below one where I think we are fairly much on the same page. )
I was doing that 'what if I had to buy a car tomorrow' exercise on AT the other week. Not terribly seriously of course as I don't have to buy a car tomorrow or even the next day but you know what I mean.
I'd be shopping ( as many here would know ) for a large comfortable economical estate car of some description. After trawling through everything available under 3 years old which didn't look dodgy I reached the conclusion that to get anything half reasonable would cost me £10,000 - £15,000 or thereabouts.
Then, just for fun, I went to the other end of the market and found a one owner full dealer service history, low-ish mileage, new MOT, new tax, top of the range ( 2.2d Titanium X ) Mondeo estate. One of the last of the Mk3s, so 2006/7 I think for just under £3000.
What exactly would be wrong with that was my initial thought and why exactly would I pay £15,000 for a car which wouldn't actually 'do' anything better?
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>>
>> What exactly would be wrong with that was my initial thought and why exactly would
>> I pay £15,000 for a car which wouldn't actually 'do' anything better?
>>
That's always been my reasoning, and usually for much less than £3,000 too.
You could buy five of the cheaper cars for your £15,000, so it wouldn't really matter if the first one or two were duds.
I've never purchased depreciation - it sounds like a dubious investment to me. A bit like speculating in 10-year scrap ferrous futures, and always misjudging the market :)
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My father used to refer to his casual clothes as his 'duds'. I've never heard anyone else use that term in that context. Maybe it was an old Scots thing.
Sorry Crankcase. Bit drifty there. Unlike me I know...
Almost certainly a one off event.
;-)
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Now Runfer being in the rag trade you should know this...
Dud´der`y
n. 1. A place where rags are bought and kept for sale.
I've had Suffolk grandparents refer to my mucking about clothes when I was perhaps 5 or 6 as "your duds".
Also remembering your status in both the trade and life surely you have a pair of smugglers duds for your loose change?
www.smugglingduds.com/about
And if you don't I expect you to launch them in the shops soon.
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Thank you for that Fenlander. I feel ever so slightly better informed all of a sudden.
( I am not 'in the rag trade' ... sheesh!)
;-)
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They probably wouldn't even give me one now, but I think they will be higher than you imagine.
Less so perhaps than before the latest tightening on "affordability" criteria. At one time all they really wanted to know was whether you were a good egg or a bad one.
Good eggs could be trusted to work out for themselves what they could afford to take on. Now the lenders have to formulate some basis of assessing how much spare cash you have to make repayments.
Generally a poor option though to use a credit card to buy a car; the dealer I paid £12000 to on a debit card the other day would have charged me 2% to use a credit card. I put £100 on the credit card to get the extra consumer protection, all the same.
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I've bought cars on a 0% interst credit card before now. But perhaps ironically only when I had the cash available to cover it anyway. Sometimes it's handy to keep your options open but I'm old fashioned / stupid / risk averse enough ( delete as appropriate ) to not want to borrow money I don't have against things which will depreciate.
I've pretty much always worked in an environment where although I might have a view or expectation in the right sort of ball park, I've never really known for sure how much my income the next year will be and borrowing against an unknown never felt right.
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Last car I bought in 2013 the main dealer allowed me to pay a max of £3,000 on a credit card which earned me JLP vouchers worth £150.
I don't think many car dealers would accept credit cards for the full payment as the costs are too high
Paid the rest on debit card
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>> I don't think many car dealers would accept credit cards for the full payment as
>> the costs are too high
I think Zero said that he was able to fund the full payment for his most recent motor by credit card.
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Paid a short ten grand for a car on a cc. Dealer wanted to add the cc fee but that ended up being the negotiated discount so ok for both parties really.
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You need two credit cards, I think. One with a decent limit on it that you use all the time, and then take out another if you need to buy something big. Buy on the first, immediately transfer the balance to a new card with a 0% deal, then cancel when paid off.
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Always a good idea to have a spare credit card ( which you don't carry in your normal wallet ). Try surviving in the modern world for a day or 3 if you lose your wallet and have no alternative means of paying for things.
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Interesting thought. I think I've used my card (debit) twice since the start of this month, and we're on the 11th. And I don't carry cash.
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I have a Tesco credit card which offered 0% on purchases for 18 months. A limit (bearing in mind my very modest pension income) of £3750 rather surprised me! I already had a Nationwide card with a £2K limit and an MBNA one, via Fluid, for £2200. No way could I afford to pay the monthly dribble if I maxed 'em out!
Anyway, when we bought our Jazz, last August, I used £2k of my Tesco card to pay the difference needed after PX. 0% appeals to me: the dealer wanted £40 to cover the CC fee, which I was OK with, as it's still cheap money.
I've got just £150 to go of the £2K so it's worked out well for me.
Nearly free money is good!
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Credit limits - Mapmaker
