Best Credit card

yellum

Who gives the best deal on credit cards ? I'm earning enough now to get a credit card so I can blow it all electronically and want the best deal.

Someone suggested an MBNA card, anyone have any views ? I have accounts with most of the banks.

hudson806

Personally I'd avoid MBNA as they tend to be very strict about on-time payment - if you're even a day late they slap a €12 or 'late payment' fee.

I've found AIB are about the best in this respect - as long as your payment clears before they issue the next bill they don't appear to care (they've never charged me interest or a fee, anyway). They also have a pretty cheap and comprehensive travel insurance option on their Gold cards (£40 Irish last time I renewed)

BOI are OK, but they tend to be a bit stricter about issuing cards - be prepared to find old bank statements going back months for them. Their web interface is awful too, IMHO.

All just my own experiences, your mileage may vary, as they say.

The Corinthian

If you're a graduate, go for one of those as they tend to be easy enough to get (as long as you're a graduate) and often have fairly good terms and low (or no) charges.

I've had a UCD graduate card for years and the only time I paid any fees was when I once 'forgot' to make a payment for three weeks.

Gordon

Someone else may know more about this than I but...

If you have an AIB account, or an AIB credit card (not sure which) - you can avail of their on-line banking and therefore avail of their temporary credit card. My boss uses this for all of his online transactions over d'interweb. You can get a set amount for the transaction e.g. under €100 and even better - it only allows authorisation once.

If I ever pull my boat out and get a credit card - this is the type I would have.

(Anyone else have better information on this?)

BuffyBot

I'd go with AIB - they are normally very felxible with payments etc, and reasonably good if you need a limit increase when on holidays etc - unlike BOI who I've found to be very stuck in the mud

RainyDay

Check out American Express Blue Card (service provided by BOI in Ireland) - They offer a 1% cash-back, so you get back 1% of all your spending at the end of each year. Note that the Blue Card is a true credit card, not a charge card like the standard Amex cards.

strat

I'm using the Bank of Ireland mastercard/visa dual card thingy for about 9 months. I recon its more of a gimic as they both share the credit limit and bill and its very rare that some place wont that will accept one of the and not the other. My credit limit went up recently after the 9 months.

This is normal ?

The Corinthian

Originally posted by StrataGIST
My credit limit went up recently after the 9 months.

This is normal ?

It's just one of those mysteries how they work out things like credit limits. When I first got mine, they gave me a ridiculously high limit. Never could understand why (I knew others earning more than me who had a quarter of my limit).

I've never used it all and it's never gone up.

ConUladh

With regards to bank of ireland increasing limits

A good while back my card was maxxed out a few months running and I was only paying the minimum payment, I got sick of it, got my act together and paid it off in one go. A few days later I'd a letter from BOI saying they didn't think my limit was sufficient to meet my needs and they were increasing it by another grand, in the same week they also sent me a letter saying I was pre-approved for a motor loan. Basically ttrying to suck me in deeper.

Sunday Times usually have MBNA Gold card as the best interest rates (at least they did when I left the country a couple of months ago)

b20uvkft6m5xwg

I'm with AIB, and cant complain. The great advantage is that you can pay the bill online or set up a DD. As Gordon pointed out, You can also use the "O-card" temporary number for security (although i have never bothered ). To use it you must download the software which is pretty poor from a user perspective.

--
As re: Credit Limits, the criteria puzzles me too.
The first month I had a £1000 limit, and the next bill my limit had gone up £2500 and now its euro 3000. That may be because my parents guarentee my card and the student branch in UCD did tell me my initial limit would be higher because of that as oppossed to the normal £500.
I suppose overall, the rising trends re: credit limits is indicative of the willingness for banks to throw loans at people nowadays.
(especially to students:D...their longterm customers...Naturally )

Mr E

Originally posted by Gordon
Someone else may know more about this than I but...

If you have an AIB account, or an AIB credit card (not sure which) - you can avail of their on-line banking and therefore avail of their temporary credit card. My boss uses this for all of his online transactions over d'interweb. You can get a set amount for the transaction e.g. under €100 and even better - it only allows authorisation once.

(Anyone else have better information on this?)

Yep, you need a credit card to avail of this service. Here is a quote from www.24hour-online.ie (AIBs online service):

transactonline is AIB's innovative service, which allows customers to pay for goods or services securely on the Internet. It works by substituting your actual credit card number with a unique, disposable number enabling you to pay online without ever sending your real credit card details over the Internet. You set the limit on each transaction so you are in complete control at all times. Any 24hour-online banking customer who holds an AIB Classic and/or AIB Gold Visa card can use transactonline.

I have to say though, unless you are completely paranoid about buying online, there is no need to use it. The only time I could see myself possibly using it is if buying stuff on an unsecured site (and it would want to be something very tempting indeed to make me risk an unsecured transaction).

- Dave.

BuffyBot

As re: Credit Limits, the criteria puzzles me too.
The first month I had a £1000 limit, and the next bill my limit had gone up £2500 and now its euro 3000. That may be because my parents guarentee my card and the student branch in UCD did tell me my initial limit would be higher because of that as oppossed to the normal £500.
I suppose overall, the rising trends re: credit limits is indicative of the willingness for banks to throw loans at people nowadays.
(especially to students:D...their longterm customers...Naturally ) [/B]

your initial credit limit is normally as standard one, based upon your income etc etc....raises are determined by how much you use the the card, how often you pay it off, how much interest there you pay etc etc...the more you use it basically, the higher the raise will be each time. Mine went from €3200 to €3800 in the space of 6 months. I've used the card more and more recently though, that was the highest jump ever.