UK credit cards

Owning up to being a know-nothing when it comes to Credit Cards these days… do you get charged Interest on what you use… or only on what is left outstanding after the monthly balance statement. … does this question make sense…:thinking:

Hi Stella,
with credit cards the interest % charge is levied on the outstanding carried forward, so if you clear the bill on the due date then there is usually no interest to pay.
I say ‘usually’ because there is a catch employed by some thieving credit card providers.

Here is an example of the catch.
Let’s say in June I spend 500 on card. I get a bill and schedule a bank payment to pay 500 on the due date say 15 July.
In July I also spend 500 - 250 between 1-14 July and 250 15-30 July.

Some card companies (type a) apply my payment to the oldest transactions first, so to my old debt and clear it with no interest charge.
Some card companies (type b for Bastards) apply my payment to the newest transactions first, so they apply 250 to my spending in the first half of July and only 250 to my old debt - the effect is that I have carried over 250 of old debt and now have to pay a very high rate of interest.

I hope this helps,
Ray

Just to be sure: Are we talking about payment card ? Or credit card as
opposed to debit card ?

I know exactly what I’m talking about Remi, if I’d meant Debit card I would have written Debit card. I have both French and British Debit cards and French and British Credit cards. I’ve never owned a Payment card.

Usually, if you pay off the total on your statement on its first due date, you pay no interest. With my UK card that can be up to two months before the payment is due. If you pay between the minimum payment and the total you will pay interest on the ‘loan’. I think my French Credit card only gives one month free of interest but I’m not sure, I always pay the full amount when it’s due.

I’ll stick with my UK and French Debit Cards…then, if I haven’t got the money… I can’t spend it…

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I used to have UK credit cards. You are right Stella, there can be a temptation to spend money you don’t have. Back in the 70s/80s they seemed to give out credit cards like sweeties, I remember I had 5 or 6 at one point with a combined credit limit far far beyond my means - can’t remember the figures but probably around £30,000 which was around twice my annual income. Being young and stupid I let it get out of control, and having got straight again I cut them all up except one, and set up an arrangement to automatically pay the balance off in full every month. I’ve stuck to that ever since. Since moving to France I very rarely use it but I keep it “just in case”. But they keep reducing the limit, it used to be £1,000s but I kept getting letters saying that they’ve reviewed my usage and noticed I don’t spend much on it so I don’t need such a high credit limit. It’s down to a few hundred now and if it goes down much further, there won’t be much point having it.

I think the UK has tightened up on issuing credit cards now, and quite right too.

The short answer is yes. But you will need to check with your bank. Not all banks will allow it and at the moment they may be a bit reticent about doing so. However My bank First Direct, and a friends bank Nationwide are OK. You will of course need to register your French address. Also it is a good idea to have bank accounts in joint names so that the cash won’t be frozen in the event of death. Furthermore once you are resident here you won’t be able to add anyone so it needs to be done before leaving the UK.

That’s no bad thing in a way. In our former life, we had several cards and ever mindful of the internet scams etc, we used one card with a limit of £1k just for internet purchases (indeed, we asked the card provider to reduce the limit to that level). This provided a bit of security that we couldn’t be ‘cleaned out’ by those nasty individuals who lurk in the dark depths of the internet.

Just for clarity. Barclaycard will close an account if it knows holders address is outside the UK. This has been the case for a while now but a recent change in the T&Cs prompted me to look again and there is a clear statement to that effect although you will be allowed some time to find alternative arrangements.

Nationwide is an excellent credit card to have as they do not charge extra for € transactions. But, you cannot get a Nationwide account from France. However, if you open an account with a UK address and then move to France, you can continue to keep and use the card - you can also get your statements online.

A potential problem with some bank debit or credit cards is that they will not post cards (replacements) to an address outside the UK. As others have said you need to check the T&Cs.

Lloyds Bank are quite happy to post out our Debit Cards when they are renewed. We stopped credit cards when we were still in UK…hate owing money.

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Hello Stella

I use Lloyds as well and have continued to use my account and been sent debit cards since coming to France in 2007. No problems at all.