So, this is a bit of a dumb question. I’m looking to apply for a credit card, basically to have a bit of an extra option financially, especially since I am a pizza delivery driver and I need to have my car working to be able to work.
So, each month, I can use the CC to buy something, like £50 of fuel. Then, as long as I pay back that £50 of credit back by the end of the same month, I get charged no interest? I only start paying interest if I miss my monthly payments? I’m I getting that roughly right?
Signed up with one of these credit score sites, ClearScore, they did a credit check, and apparently I am pre-approved for a Capital One card for guarnteed APR of 29.8%. Thinking of applying for it, but you know, want to make sure I get all my facts straight. Obviously, don’t want to get a CC only for it to wind up being a money pit. Want to use it to help me when I need it, especially since that because I get paid every 4 weeks, not every month, I get paid earlier each month rather than the same day each month.
You Guys are the true Heroes of the Covid Lockdown, i genuinely salute you. I always tip you guys, btw!
i dont know shit about CCs, i dont have one and i think laws and regulations are everywhere different. i personally wouldn’t get one, what if you use it and then lose your job? even when its “only” Fifty Bucks.
I dont want to scare you away from the idea tho, maybe you should make an appointment with you Bank to get more information, just so you can be sure.
More or less, yes you have the concept. In fact the part you spoke about (paying before the bill is due to avoid interest, is nearly spot on! You don’t have to pay same month. You gave a billing cycle and so you can pay slightly later without interest. For example… you charge £50 for petrol on Jan 3rd. Let’s pretend your billing cycle is the 15th of each month. On Jan 15th you will get a bill for £50 and it will have a payment due date on it. Pay the 50 by that due date and you’re all set. If you don’t make any payment at all you’ll likely be hit with a late fee as well as your interest which would be roughly 1.25 on 50 worth of spending ( 50 • 30% / 12 months ) Where people get into trouble is the bill will say “min payment due” and that might only be 7 pounds. Paying the 7 will avoid a late fee but will then allow the card issuer to charge interest on the remaining 43 pounds.
The other things you want to look for are 1) is there a yearly fee for the card? 2) what do you get for having/using the card? And 3) what’s the interest rate which you mentioned as 30%.
If you’re just starting off it’s best to stay away from a card that has a yearly fee. The next Q (what do I get for using the card) can relate to the fee or lack thereof. Most cards offer points or airline miles or even cash back at a miserable small rate. You might get 1 point per pound spent and for every 1000 points you can get 1 pound back. It does add up over a lifetime of use though. Some cards offer perks such as access to aeroline lounges or £15 per month for free in uber fees, but usually those involve a yearly fee, so steer clear for now. What you should look at is the sign up bonus. Even the free cards with not so great points can offer great sign on bonuses. One might be 50,000 bonus points after you spend £5000 in 3 months. So basically you use the card for all your purchases in the first three months or until you hit 5000, you pay it all off before the due date (to avoid interest) and you get 5000 points for the pounds you spent + 50000 points for free. In our pretend world it’s £50 in your pocket just for signing up. You could get a miles* card and end up with a free round trip flight. The interest rates will ALWAYS be high. It’s also worth noting that you should never use the credit card as an ATM card. In the US the interest starts counting the very second you pull out cash with the card (instead of after the pay by date). So pulling out £500 to hit the casino and then putting it all back 5 hours later will still mean paying some interest.
All in all I love credit cards. They keep fantastic records, way better than I could with cash purchases, they offer some* protections against fraud or bogus online shops (although these protections are better in the states than they are in the UK so read your policy) and so long as you pay them before the interest charges hit you actually earn a very tiny amount of your money back. Amex even sends me a report every Jan for the previous year and it shows where all my money spend money goes by category.
One last bit of advice. Do a couple more days worth of research too. The points guy is a great resource for credit cards and they have a UK specific page
Thanks man. To be honest, well, I’m actually getting tested for COVID today. Started having coughing fits yesterday, woke up with them today. Going to a drive through test centre tonight.
Thanks guys, I’ve done the test. They told me I should get the results in 24 to 48 hours. See what happens. I’ve got to be honest, I’ll feel guilty if I test positive because it means my pizza shop will effectively shut for 2 weeks and all the staff will have to get tested. Not sure if we can get compensated for those 2 weeks off.
Don’t! It would be different if you were going “yahoo” in a hot tub in Ibiza with people you’d not met before and no masks. You deliver pizza for a living. There is an inherent and largely unavoidable risk in that. Humans need to eat.
This whole thing highlights the difference in approach and how broken my own countries approach is. A positive worker at a US based pizza place (even in a deep blue place like Chicago or San Francisco) would not result in a closure. It would mean stay open and self monitor and test. If, and only if, all employees test positive then it could still be open provided you can get new employees.
In Germany they decided to make another “Lockdown” till the end of January but it’s so stupid.
They close everything and they say, you are only allowed to meet with one person, but the schools are still open. The parents can decide if they want to take their kids to school or not and guess what? We had that scenario before Christmas and some classes were still full.
So on my work, im sitting there with seven other adults (it’s a school for children with disabilities so we have many attendants like me in class) and nine children. But in private I can only meet one person? That’s stupid.
I’m getting mad every time I hear them saying “wir appellieren an die Eigenverantwortung” but at the same time they want me to go to work with dozens of other people.
We’re only allowed to socialize with 10 people max for outdoor weddings and funerals (have fun doing that in a Canadian winter) but it’s illegal to go to someone else’s house unless you live alone at least until the end of January. I haven’t seen anyone but the wife since Christmas.
I think I’m ready to pre-order Hitman 3’s Deluxe soon.
Part of me really wants to get the 10$-cheaper PS5 version just to get the PS4 version at a price a bit cheaper (which I still don’t know why it’s priced that way), but there’s still too many unknowns that go with it, IMO, as someone who doesn’t even own a PS5.
We know any PS5 version purchases will get the PS4 version for VR capabilities, but… Is it really that simple? Do you have to play the PS5 version for it to load a PS4 version to your account? Is the PS4 version going to be a VR-specific version to save on space?
I don’t want to lock myself into an option that’ll be a big hassle or even something impossible to refund via Sony’s awful policies and customer service.
A-ha. There’s that loophole. I was wondering if they’d do something like that, though I wasn’t sure if it was possible to restrict a PS4 version to the next-gen console. Thanks for saving my butt before I go through with this thing.
