Whose got the trousers on?

[Sysman]

it's getting worse though.

if you buy into the whole shonky edifice, you get a grand off your car ????
do people honestly believe all this is free ??

It's dead easy to get a grand off a new car, though you may have to do a bit of shopping around.

And for those who use a card everywhere and pay off in full every month, the benefits aren't actually free.

Think how much your complete spending history is worth to the marketing folks. If you aren't convinced, look at where Google gets its money.

[NotAllThere]

I have two credit cards, with a limit of ~£5000 and I pay 100CHF (£65) a year for the privilege. There aren't really any debit cards here. I use one credit card for online shopping and the other for when we're out of the country (and often for in-country purchases, to get enough points to pay the yearly fee - though many large shops still don't take credit cards).

The main benefits are ease of use and payment protection. I bought tickets for a concert through a company that went bust and got my money entirely refunded - about £200.

As far as the original question goes:

When we first married, my wife and I decide that I'd take all the big decisions and she'd take all the little ones. After 22 years of marriage there haven't been any big decisions yet, but if one comes along, I'm ready for it.

[Gonzo]

i want to know if I might be going wrong somewhere, in my personal philosophy

In the olden days, banks used to pay interest on credit balances so it was always worth a bit of extra cash to you if you spent on the credit card (or the Amex Platinum Charge card if you were a proper contractor ) and then settle the bill in full once per month.

As others have said, there is also enhanced payment protection insurance when using a credit card instead of using cash or debit card.

EDIT: Back on topic, it is all joint decisions in our house - Mrs Gonzo spends money on fags and I spend it on wine. We are both happy!

[escapeUK]

Well lets think about this a little deeper. No credit cards means either you dont buy anything off the internet (unlikely) or if you do you use a debit card which means you are totally exposed to fraud, lose your money if the item gets lost and the supplier wont sort it.

Someone at work has their PayPal linked to their debit card, and bought a £1000 computer off Ebay that never came, they never got that money back. With a credit card you would.

As others have said, I get a % back of everything I spend. Its so much for fuel and food, and a lesser % for everything else. So not only do I have the safety of fraud protection, the convenience of not carrying cash, a large limit for spontaneous purchases ( do you have £8k sat in your current account?) they also pay me to do it.

This combined with credit scoring is why i think its naive not to have one. Especially those that say things like "Id never consider one", but some people cant control themselves with credit. Have met a lot of people like this, its usually young women who have spent upto the limit, got it extended, done it again, with no thought of paying it back. Who end up cutting up as if its crack cocaine. Was that what you did Gent?

[mudskipper]

It's dead easy to get a grand off a new car, though you may have to do a bit of shopping around.
.

The GM Card was pretty exceptional. You could only use the points towards a Vauxhall (or Saab?), or, if you got a Vauxhall as your company car, you got vouchers. But the good thing was you negotiated the price of your car with the dealer, then redeemed your points. Twice I got an excellent deal getting around £1500 off before I redeemed my points. But only useful if you intended to get a Vauxhall.

[MarillionFan]

I handle all financial decisions in our house, Mrs MF doesn't have a clue and is hopeless with money.

Regarding credit cards they are a wonderful thing.

I have around 7 credit cards with a credit limit of just over £100k. At any one time I owe £30/£40k on long term interest free loans. I regularly use them for stoozing and make sure that the money owed sits in higher interest rate accounts then the cost of the original balance transfer. I have on average made around £1500 per year doing this for the last 12 years or so.

Concerning loyalty. I used to use a lot of cashback when i owned shops. I would pay suppliers on credit cards each month and make additional money from it. I used to spend £100k a year. Now I use either Amex for BA miles(I have enough for four business class flights anywhere in the world now) and Tescos for reward vouchers. We get around £250 reward vouchers per year which when redeemed are worth £1000 in rewards which we use for restaurant vouchers, tickets, days out etc

It's free money innit and you'd be stoopid not to do it.

[darmstadt]

Don't really have credit cards here, they tend to be more like debit cards although I now have a real credit card and they keep putting up the limit although I hardly ever use it. I have 3 debit cards (plus 2 cashpoint cards which also work as debit cards), 2 of which are business, 1 of which is unlimited which is scary as they subtract the whole amount directly from my account monthly. I actually don't use them too much as Germany is still very much a cash based society (i.e if I went into Media Markt or Saturn to buy gadgets I would have to pay cash.)

As for the 'trousers', 'er indoors does all that as I have absolutely no ******* idea!

[Gentile]

Well lets think about this a little deeper. No credit cards means either you dont buy anything off the internet (unlikely) or if you do you use a debit card which means you are totally exposed to fraud, lose your money if the item gets lost and the supplier wont sort it.

I buy stuff off of the internet all the time with my Visa Debit, and any time the goods haven't arrived the purchase has been covered under exactly the same Chargeback scheme as Visa Credit cards use.

Are there any other marketing myths or old wives tales you've chosen to believe to rationalise your decision to access easy credit? Do you think you can't get a passport without a credit card, maybe? Or perhaps you believe those of use that choose not to use them can't register to vote?

[cailin maith]

When we first married, my wife and I decide that I'd take all the big decisions and she'd take all the little ones. After 22 years of marriage there haven't been any big decisions yet, but if one comes along, I'm ready for it.

[EternalOptimist]

Well lets think about this a little deeper. No credit cards means either you dont buy anything off the internet (unlikely) or if you do you use a debit card which means you are totally exposed to fraud, lose your money if the item gets lost and the supplier wont sort it.

Someone at work has their PayPal linked to their debit card, and bought a £1000 computer off Ebay that never came, they never got that money back. With a credit card you would.

As others have said, I get a % back of everything I spend. Its so much for fuel and food, and a lesser % for everything else. So not only do I have the safety of fraud protection, the convenience of not carrying cash, a large limit for spontaneous purchases ( do you have £8k sat in your current account?) they also pay me to do it.

This combined with credit scoring is why i think its naive not to have one. Especially those that say things like "Id never consider one", but some people cant control themselves with credit. Have met a lot of people like this, its usually young women who have spent upto the limit, got it extended, done it again, with no thought of paying it back. Who end up cutting up as if its crack cocaine. Was that what you did Gent?

I have two debit cards. one for risky stuff that has a balance of about £100 at any one time.

If I am going on a trip I put a grand on it, or some such.

you still have not explained why someone who doesn't have one and never intends to get one needs a credit score and is naive not to consider it