Impulse buys

Naaaaa, £20k limit on a typical platinum card is obviously a fair few bob to
be sure but I don't think it's anything to get terribly jumpy up and down
about; they hand the feckers out like sweets these days and before you know
it as long as you've played fair you'll have a wacking great limit. Even my
gf who only graduated in 2002 and didn't start work until December of that
year got herself a Barclaycard thingy with a credit limit that made her eyes
stand out on stalks... in debt already (student loan, small one but debt
just the same), only just started work, doesn't own property, and still they
gave her a limit of about 25% of her annual gross salary, just like that, no
bother. Crazy IMO.
Oh, and I know a bloke who works for the blummin' underground, which isn't
the best paid work there is but he's got a CC with a five figure limit on
it.
Bloody expensive way to borrow £20k though (if borrowing is what you are
doing), even with 'low rate' cards there's cheaper ways to raise the dosh
(assuming yer a property owner that is). Could always rate-tart it for a
quick and cheap pay off mind.
Store cards can also go to five figures if you've been a good boy.
Amex sort of pretend that they don't have a limit, but in reality the limit
is "whatever you have demonstrated that you can repay at the end of a
month". Presumably Diners works much the same way?
One assumes though that when buying pricey things like bikes on a CC the
vendor will either slap a hefty admin fee on top of the agreed price or
refuse to offer a discount cos of the CC charges and all that? Dunno...
never tried it, always paid cash (and only ever had ratty machines <g>).

ZK

 

This is true. I have three cards, and I think the combined limit on all
of them is over 25k.

 

Likewise, blummin' daft really init?

ZK

 

I pay my cards off every month (well, usually....). Only instance I
could see myself buying a bike on a card would be (obviously) on impulse
and if I knew I had the funds to pay it off before it started clocking
up interest.

Then I might well, because think of all the Air Miles I'd accumulate....

 

Quite so

 

<waves> but we ain't met. As per TOG if you add up my various credit
limits it soon reaches a scary amount of money. Still I've given up
spending on credit cards - a mug's game.

 

That sounds like Reg.
Is he still racing? I though he'd retired after one off too many.
Say hello to him from me next time you speak to him.

 

Oh I dunno, I had my flat all decorated up and I put a substantial amount of
the bills onto a CC. I've got the dosh in the bank to pay it all off but
frankly the various CC companies have been offering me such good deals to
bounce the money about that it pays me to leave the dosh in the bank and
just keep the CC regular payments satisfied (i.e. I get a better rate on my
savings account than I am currently paying for credit cards). These zero
percent wot nots are great while they last

ZK

 

Some smaller dealers won't allow CC for large purchases.

TPG in Hove has a notice to that effect. When I asked why, he explained
it was because of the % charges he has to pay to CC Co.

 

He's retired racing bikes - had an outing on the Team Ixion TZR-fest
last year, and, er, fell off. (actually, got taken out).

He's going car racing this year

Shall do.

 

Or because you can easily get 6-month introductory periods
of 0% interest, and just keep opening new cards and transfering
it over when these end?

I'm currently on card #5 and haven't paid interest on my
credit card bill for nearly two years!

 

Cheers, Ant - that's just reminded me of something I must
do in the next week or so - an application for card #4.

 

I took out an Egg card to buy the new ZX7RR on.

And, if I haven't paid it off by April, that's what I shall do too.

 

You really haven't got the hang of this impulse-buy thing, have you.

 

I had Hell's own game when I bought my Bandit on my debit card. Not
with the dealer, who was quite happy to take my money off me in any
form; but with my bloody bank, who wanted to know all about everything
before they would allow me access to my own bloody money. Granted, it
was the forst time I'd actually been in credit in some long time - so
they didn't want to let it go - but it still took about 30 minutes of
Q&A on an increasingly sweaty phone before they would approve it.

I was going to claim the Bandit as an impulse purchase, but I had been
looking for one like it for some time - but when I saw it I had to
have it. Scampered round the corner and spoke to Auntie Carole,
established she would cover me (then bought MCN and rang every other
broker in the adverts) ... walked over the Hill to a caff, had a smoke
and a coffee and another smoke, walked back into Ken's and did the
deal.

That was just about the best moment of my biking career - they wheeled
the bike out of the showroom and then cast around looking for a
mechanic to ride it up the Hill to the workshop. No mechanic in
sight, obviously. So I sidled over and asked if I should (as I was
insured, and had been for ... ooh ... ten minutes) so they chucked the
keys at me.

I slung my leg over it, wrestled it upright (sideways on Westgate Hill
is not pleasant) and fired it up. Lovely. Had a quick look around,
trickled across the road and opened it up a bit. Front wheel lifted
and we was awahaay ;-)

I was still grinning like a bastard when I dropped into the showroom
20 minutes later to collect my stuff.

****, I miss that bike.

 

Paul Corfield said...

I don't have any cards, and I'm so much happier without.

 

We don't use CC although we both carry them in case of emergencies.

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2452130161

Looks ok. Currently 750 not met reserve.
Give him a call and haggle outside ebay (the "advertised elsewhere" bit).

 

I use my Morgan Stanley card for just about every purchase over a
tenner, and pay the balance off every month. The reason for this is
they give me 1% cashback on every purchase (0.5% for the first 5k), so
I get a nice cheque once a year. Last year it was 175ish quid...

 

I think there's similar arrangement with the card we use. We always pay it
off every month mind. We don't do debt.