Credit Cards to Recommend?

crimon222

I am moving to Ireland in October and looking to obtain a credit card. My current credit card in Canada earns me a couple free flights a year, travel insurance and no annual fee. I was looking for something similar in Ireland, but there doesn't appear to be too many options. The rewards based credit cards I've looked into so far have high annual fees and you have to spend a lot of money on the card before reaping any benefits. I intend to pay off my balance every month and will have a stable salary. However, since I am just moving to Ireland, I have no credit history there so I'm not sure if my options are even more limited. The ones that I've looked into include AIB Platinum Visa Card and Bank of Ireland Platinum Advantage. Any thoughts or other recommendations?

coylemj

This has been discussed here many times - Ireland is not a good place for credit cards with benefits. Most people just go with the card offered by their own bank so the banks would see little competitive advantage in offering goodies with cards that have no annual fees.

The Bank of Ireland Platinum Advantage card gives you travel insurance cover when you pay at least half the cost of your holiday with the card but there's an annual charge of €76 so it's probably cheaper to buy the travel insurance and just go for a standard card with no fees. That card used to also give you 6 months insurance cover for theft or damage to goods you purchased with the card but they quietly withdraw that benefit a few years ago. I have one and I intend downgrading to a standard Mastercard in Jan/Feb. 2018. One of the reasons I'm going to downgrade is that travel agents and airlines charge a surcharge for paying with a credit card so it will be cheaper for me to pay for holidays with a debit card and buy a multitrip (annual) travel insurance policy.

clintondaly

https://www.bonkers.ie/compare-credit-cards/

Have a look above

Taylor365

Don't forget the annual 30 odd euro government fee for owning a credit card.

crimon222

Wow, I didn't realize how poor the credit card situation is. I'm almost tempted to keep using my Canadian credit card.

Although its not much, AIB appears to be the best with 225 cash back and no annual fee.

Yggr of Asgard

You might also find it hard to get an Irish Credit card when you come to the country as they all are now responsible lenders and will seek loads of information to ensure that you are capable of repaying.

If you have a Canadian American Express card, look at global transfer program and see if they can convert that into an international € card for you so that you can keep that credit record with them and convert the card back to Canada when you move back.

Otherwise banks now give you a Debit card (Visa/Mastercard), we don't have something like your interac anymore, so you will be able to use a card linked to your current account nearly everywhere.

In addition there are some free prepaid mastercards out there like revolut (big topic here on boards) which give you a mastercard with good exchange rates in case you spend in other currencies than € and it also allows you to top up in CAD so that you get a better rate for your transfers.

If you want a credit card to have real credit, you will need to be in the country for a while until banks will give you a better limit. If it's just for having a card to pay day to day, your debit card will be good enough for most items.

And as others mention there is a 30€ goverment tax on credit cards that you have to pay once a year, so take that into consideration for your calculations.

Welcome to Ireland...