Best Credit Card Deal

corcaigh07

really need a credit card for paypal, online deals, ryanair cheap/free flights. just wondering whats the best deal out there? things to consider:

government 40 euro duty, does anyone pay it for you in order to attract new customers?
im a student, would anyone refuse to issue me a Credit card, id only need a relatively small credit limit?
interest rates, whos lowest in case i dont pay up in time?
does anyone give away some nice freebies?

any help is welcome,cheers

Random

Do you have a student bank account? They'd probably be the best place to start.

Creamy Goodness

tbh they are all the same imo.

if their interest rate figure is a deciding factor on who you go with then maybe you should rethink your idea of getting a credit card.

i have the AIB student one for the last three years, it's great i haven't a clue of the interest rates as i pay off the card as soon as it's charged. it starts off with a limit of 800 but based on your payments they'll give you a increase in limit every 6 months.

i'm up to 3,500 with it atm, and have never maxed it out.

when going for this card i ask BOI for a student credit card, they said no, i needed a part time job for at least 4 months and only then they'd give me 400 euro credit.

walked into the AIB next door, filled out a form, 5 days later i had a credit card in my wallet with double the limit.

hippee

6.9% APR on a Halifax card Cannot see bills online though which is the only disadvantage.

okidoki987

If you're not going to pay it off every month then the cheapest interest rate is your best bet.
As said above Halifax is the cheapest but check all the T&C's i.e. does it last for ever, 6 months only, etc?
I think the Gov Duty is now down to €30 per card.
Tesco give you back €30 in vouchers when you apply so that covers the duty.
When you use it, you can Tesco clubcard points so that may or may not be useful to you (2 points for ever € when used in Tesco, 1 elsewhere).
Ulster used to give money back to cover the Duty but not sure if they still do.
Somebody is currently giving a free €100 when you apply and use their card once but can't remember which one it is .
Some will also give FREE travel insurance but it's not always FULL travel insurance, again read the t&c's attached.
Remember if you have a cc and can't pay it off, it will be cheaper borrowing/overdraft rather then paying the int rates.

corcaigh07

yep, i currently have a AIB student bank a/c. i fully intend on paying back the bills as quickly as possible as i dont believe in letting something needless get unnecessarily more expensive. like i said, a very low credit limit is all i want and need. i may look into ulster bank, they seem like they might have an offer. if someone covered the duty, id get their card straight away. the tesco one seems good but its not cold hard cash either!

nice1franko

The "best" one will depend on the type of person you are:

1) if you will *always* pay it in full so you never pay interest then get a reward card such as the pigsback, ryanair or tesco one where you get a point for every euro you spend.

2) if there's any chance you will not pay in full then the best one will be the lowest interest rate.

corcaigh07

ill go for no.1-thanks nice1franko. any recommendations towards any in particular?

jvc

Halifax have an offer of 100 euro free spending money when you sign up for their credit card and make your first purchase. I dont know if there is any catch but it looks good at first glance. It would be great to hear from anyone who took up this offer.

falteringstar

If you're a student then you can pretty much forget about Halifax, or anyone else with a "low" APR, this leave you with two choices, AIB's mc2 card or Bank of Ireland's student card.

AIB will give you 3.9% APR for the first year which is great! And as I work for AIB I know that we have a **** load of macbooks we are giving away to students who sign up for the card.

corcaigh07

how do you these macbooks falteringstar? theres no word of them on the website.

i was in halifax today, they didnt seem to be adverse to students when i ask them would i get refused? maybe ill have a sneaky word with AIB and since im already an AIB customer, it should be easy.

corcaigh07

well, i talked to AIB but they didnt have a clue about any macbooks! in fact they had no deal of any kind apart from the low APR rate and 56 days payback.

nice1franko

corcaigh07 wrote: »

ill go for no.1-thanks nice1franko. any recommendations towards any in particular?

I only have experience with the pigsback one but I think it's grand - never had any probs in about 7 years. I usually get phone credit with the points.

It's with MBNA, who do have a bad repuation i think (they are fairly ****e for charges if you don't pay on time... but I pay mine every month so never been charged anything). The mbna online service is good for viewing your transactions etc. I don't think the tesco one has an online service yet.

Also, my card number got nicked when I bought a load of cheap dvds from some dodgy website (I actually found that site through bargain alerts ) and strange charges start appearing on it. i rang mbna, the cancelled the card, said not to worry about it and had a new card out to me a couple of days.

edit- also, when you sign up for the pigsback one u get about 20 euro worth of points so that basically covers your govt fee (for year 1 anyway)

CountingCrows

jvc wrote: »

Halifax have an offer of 100 euro free spending money when you sign up for their credit card and make your first purchase. I dont know if there is any catch but it looks good at first glance. It would be great to hear from anyone who took up this offer.

Yep, no catch. You can take the 100euro OR 6 months free interest on balance transfer and purchases.

corcaigh07

they treat you fairly well so,franko. my thinking on this right is go for the 100 euro with halifax(70 euro free cash!)
and if they refuse me, ill go with AIB as since i already have an account with them, it would be nice to pay bills etc. 56 days credit is pretty good too. if falteringstar can confirm there are macbooks available though, ill bite off AIBs hand for that one, thats worth more than 100 euro!

corcaigh07

falteringstar, any word on this?