Credit card interest

[TacheTastic]

I don't look too closely at my statement generally, because it always gets paid in full and I use YNAB, so I would notice dodgy transactions. My bill states that the estimated interest next month is £25.89. That's my phone/broadband bill each month. It's my monthly water bill. It's nearly a week of food shopping. It's such a lot of money, and there would be no value whatsoever in my paying that money out.

Just looking at that number makes me feel a bit sick, and I wanted to share that feeling of horror with you all, since we are nearing Hallowe'en.

[frugledoc]

We do all our spending on credit cards.

My main gripe is that you can’t automatically clear the entire balance if the card each month

[highlandterrier]

Might want to look at swapping provider frugledoc both my credit cards now allow full balance payoff automatically (MBNA and Amazon). Unless your cashback is worth the extra effort.

[MarcherLady]

Anyone got a good cashback card? I use Santander 123 or 321, or whatever it's called. We get 3% cashback on some categories of spending, petrol, train tickets and supermarkets/department stores from memory, but it's been capped recently, and is pretty feeble these days.

Estimated interest on the last bill was 18.43.

[PhilB]

I haven't checked for a few years, but last time I did Amex Platinum was the best deal.  Drawbacks are a) not everyone accepts it so you need a second card and b) if you want to pay automatically in full they take the cash way before the deadline.

[daverobev]

AFAIK there aren't any really good cashback cards in the UK at the moment. You can get 0.5% with either Tandem or Aqua. I have the latter because I didn't have 3 years of UK address history when I moved back.

Fact is you're better off using a 'stoozing' card and putting what you WOULD be paying into whatever high interest account you can find. Eg, even though it's reduced, you can still get 3% on £1500 with TSB - and if you have a partner, that can be two single and one joint account. There is Nationwide FlexDirect which pays 5% for the first year. And so on.

Nothing like the US or Canada, but then the interchange fees are capped in the EU, so there just isn't the headroom for large bonuses or cashback.

You can, at least, get an Amazon voucher on signing up for the Aqua card I believe. I got £20.

[londonstache]

Agreed, about 0.5% is the best you can hope for without paying an annual fee for the card, particularly for straight cashback.

I hold an Amex Gold which is 1-3% (depending on where I spend), but this is because I travel frequently for business and can run a lot of expenses through it, offsetting the annual cost through Airmiles. As I also rack up airmiles through business travel, I can effectively substantially subsidise holidays each year.

You could also get 1% if you sign up for Amex Rewards (https://www.headforpoints.com/2018/10/27/american-express-rewards-credit-card-review-2/) but the linked article gives a suggestion of using one of the annual fee cards, changing over to avoid the fee for year 2.

Depends on what you value - I'll generally take straight airmiles over cash, but accept that this isn't the most directly Mustachian route.

[TacheTastic]

We do all our spending on credit cards.

My main gripe is that you can’t automatically clear the entire balance if the card each month

What card do you have that doesn't allow this? I just have direct debit for the full statement balance each month. I update YNAB to warn me of the impending transaction, but the credit card company send me a text message just before it goes out as well.

[never give up]

By law I believe a credit card company have to allow a balance to be paid off in full each month. I would give them a call and set this up.

Cash back cards used to be quite good but as others have said reward cards tend to be the best now. I have a card linked to my supermarket. The rewards have diminished over the years but it still gives me two or three free weekly shops over the year.

[PhilB]

It's all been downhill since First Direct stopped giving M&S vouchers on their credit card and I had to start paying for underwear again :(

[never give up]

Between Christmas and supermarket reward points I went over a decade without needing to buy deodorant. I feel your pain PhilB :-)

[Playing with Fire UK]

I'd been an Amex fan for a decade but I've now switched to Tandem. I was barely getting 0.5% back from Amex Rewards (it all depends on what you'd actually spend cash on) and the change of 6 months between sign-up bonuses to 24 months pushed me over the edge. I might do another round of Amexing in a couple of years.

Tandem is great, 0.5% cashback straight off every bill, super simple and great exchange great for overseas spending (due to the way my work expenses are calculated, this gives me an extra 2-3% off these).

I also like Curve card which allows you to use a credit card for some bills and shops that only accept debit cards. Referal codes are available for a free £5.

[HomewardBound]

We do all our spending on credit cards.

My main gripe is that you can’t automatically clear the entire balance if the card each month

I use an American Express card and with that I'm able to automatically have the full amount direct debited monthly from my current account with no intervention from me.

[PhilB]

We spend well over £5k pa on our Amex so get 1% cashback on a lot of it.  I got DW a card on my account so both lots of spending count towards the tiers.  I should probably go the for the platinum with the £25 fee for better cashback rather than the platinum everyday, but probably won't get round to is as we expect to spend much more time abroad once the kids finish school and so a lot of our spending will shift to our Halifax Clarity cards.  These don't give cashback, but the great FX rates and absence of fees more than makes up for it.
The Halifax card is the only one on which I do actually pay some interest.  Cash withdrawals get hit with interest from day 1, but still work out cheaper than any other way of drawing cash abroad.

[habanero]

My main gripe is that you can’t automatically clear the entire balance if the card each month

They changed the law here a couple of years ago - when you get the monthly bill for a credit card it must come pre-entered with the full amount due. Before that the default was the monthly minimum. If it actually helped is another story...