Credit

You might have some little blemish, like paying a phone bill late or something, but chances are you have no credit, which I don't have either. So you'll have to get one of those Visa training-bra cards, which you have to put a DEPOSIT on and you can only spend up to that amount. Then you can move up to the real deal.

They don't do this with 19 year old college kids, but if you're a grown-up without credit, they make you jump through hoops.

Unfortunately, I already have one of these, and that happens to be the "potentially negative" item on my report. I guess I need to suck it up and use my tax refund to pay off a big chunk of it so that my report looks better.

I know credit cards are bad, but I never have any money and Sarah always has to pay for emergency things for me and it's really bad. Also I should get a job that pays better.

xpost

Or possibly a Visa/MC from Shell or BP, since the limit may be lower.

I have a card that gives me "reward points" for every dollar I charge (not just for airline miles and shit, but much more flexible when it comes time to cash in). So I use it A LOT on things like groceries, gas, etc. I'm careful to keep my spending in line so that I can pay off the full balance every month, so it doesn't cost me a thing to use.

Payoff: I am about to cash in some of those reward points on a pricey vacuum cleaner that will end up costing me NOTHING. Nada. Of course this really wouldn't be any sort of deal if I was forking over finance charges, but I'm not, so the credit company can just PUT OUT for me!

Also: if you ever plan to buy a house (maybe not likely in the near future, but hey, it could happen!) you can bet that you will have a very difficult time qualifying for a decent mortgage if you don't have much of a credit history. So at least sign up for a real card so that you can show that history, even if you cut up the card and never ever use it.

Plus, they don't get rich off folks with your discipline. And now they're lobbying to restructure bankruptcy so they can bleed poor suckers even more.

so does anybody have a recommendation for a decent rewards card? At my old job we were given company credit cards but at the new one I pay for everything and am reimbursed weekly for any expenditures. I certainly don't ever intend to carry a balance and I figured it might be a good time to exploit one for some airline miles or cash back.

a couple of things I've learned today on the internet:
Capitol One and AMEX Blue seem to be the highest-rated rewards cards - but the sites that rate them seem like they could easily be bought & paid for by card co.'s

there are a lot of disgruntled folks who have had a bitch of a time redeeming their miles/hotel points/what have you. There seems to be a general opinion that the $$ rewards cards are easier cash in on than airline points.

US or UK?

I do BA Amex because the airmiles are good for maintaining a long distance relationship. John Lewis has good cashback. If your work is prompt at reimbursing expenses then you may want to look at an amex charge card rather than credit, rewards are even better there I think.

US.

another thing i've learned is that Discover rewards cards seem to give the least amount of hassle, but I'm not sure if they're as universally excepted as some of the others. I have to travel a fair amount and I don't want to be screwed at the P.O.S.

accepted

If you ever have to go outside the US discover is useless. In europe occasionally I encounter no Amex, but not as frequently as I encounter no VISA/Mastercard in the US so it is pretty rare. I have one of each anyway.

Question: have you ever met anyone with a Diner's Club?

i seem to remember an uncle having one in the 80's

but not as frequently as I encounter no VISA/Mastercard in the US so it is pretty rare.

really? I thought these were the standards everywhere. in fact ive never seen a place that doesnt take both if they take credit cards. they have the cheapest fee right? 50c or something like that?

I had a Diners Club card 2000-2004.

Trying to remember where it was but I have been to a restaurant in new york where they only do amex, which seemed weird to me because of what sunny said.

yeah, i think visa/mc has the lowest fee for businesses whereas amex is more expensive. in big u.s. cities, though, this doesn't seem to be much of an issue, and in nyc there are plenty of amex-only places (mainly restaurants).

Watch out for the fees on some of these cards they can be quite steep, £60 in the case of my Amex, but I figure that pays for the travel insurance it comes with.

yeah that was the other thing. I'm not really interested in an annual fee or any of that BS.

One of the nice things about the UK is the banks have to include the fee in the APR calculation so any fee based card automatically looks shit in the best buy tables.

in amex's defense, i've found that their customer service is so much better that the fee is sort of worth it.

This is OTM, I never have to queue to speak to anyone on the phone.

hmmm. noted.

Im still floored that you can get a 0% APR on credit cards for a year here in the US. If you jump credit cards enough im sure you can avoid interest. Back in AUS I think 12.99% is considered really low.

ive got a hsbc credit card which is near its limit, i owe about 9k on it and i pay about £200 in interest on it each month. i keep hearing about this 12mth 0% balance transfer thing - am i right in thinking that it means that i transfer my credit card balance over to another card and dont pay any interest or fees on it for 12 months? if this is right im really keen to do this as im certain i can pay off the entire amount in the next year.

does anyone know of a decent UK credit card that does this and how easy it is to do? can i do it online? also after the 12 mths is up could i go back to my hsbc credit card? and does doing this affect my credit rating at all?