I need some credit card advice

7
Posted on 6 July 2009 Personal

I dig credit cards. It’s the only way I get to screw the banks over on a daily basis. Use their money every day and only pay it back to them after 55 days all the while my money sits earning interest. :)

I currently have an ABSA credit card and Virgin Money credit card. I use the ABSA card almost daily with the Virgin Money card only being used for its decent interest rate it offers on positive balances. I do find though that buying big ticket items with the Virgin card don’t seem to run smoothly. There is always telephonic verifications in store and online it’s a total fail.

The ABSA card on the other hand, I believe for the amount of money I spend on it on a monthly basis, I should be earning some sort of rewards. They recently changed rewards programs, which meant all my “points” accumulated over the last few years have been lost and I now have to start all over again – oh, and sign up to a R20 a month membership to belong to it. So instead of switching rewards programs, I’m switching cards.

I need some help. I’m looking for a card that doesn’t have that large a annual / monthly fee that also has a rewards program (that is actually useful!) attached to it. Another thing is a low international transaction fee as well as internet / mobile banking.

Any suggestions?

Tags: , ,
  • iDale

    Hi Jason

    I’m not a mega fan of credit cards, but got on in December based purely on the rewards and benefits. I went with the Discovery Gold card (FNB is the bank). The initial reason is that because I’m on discovery medical aid and have Vitality I was able to add an extra benefit which pays back 8% of my monthly home loan installment back into my account (provided it’s an FNB home loan). As you can imagine this is saving me a great whack of cash each month.

    I’m also in the process of activating the voyager benefit which accumulates with a mile for every R12 I spend.

    I’ve never had an issue with the card not working and get SMS’s for everything that happens.

    The only down side is the FNB internet banking site, which I think is the worst of all the bad banking sites.

    Consider this… it’s got the banking of FNB and the service of Discovery, so it’s great in my opinion.

  • http://www.jasonbagley.com Jason

    Thanks for the comment and suggestions iDale. I was just chatting to Allen Kent earlier today and I might of found one of the best credit cards packages in SA! Will sniff out some more of the info and do a follow up blog post about it. :)

  • Christo Bothma

    Hi Jason

    I have a client that has passed on this very useful webpages to me – http://www.justmoney.co.za/CreditCardCompare.aspx and / http://www.thinkmoney.co.za/.

    On these pages you can compare all the costs and interest rates of credit cards.

    I hope this helps.

    Regards
    Christo Bothma

  • http://www.justmoney.co.za graeme

    Hi,

    Nice post, you bring up some really valid points, and @Christo thanks for dropping those links, very kind :)

    Credit cards can be useful if you pay everything off in full (plus maybe a bit extra to be sure) every month, then they are almost always free to swipe and attract no interest, some people even use their credit cards as savings accounts due to the interest paid, but you need to be really strict with yourself.

    A lot of people are caught by credit cards because they don’t pay them off, and then get hammered by the hefty interest charges.

    So check out the calculator link above and work out which would be best for you.

  • http://www.mortgagepluscc.co.za Morne Prinsloo

    I have found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Look forward to reading more from you in the future. If you want you are more then welcome to visit my website by Googling (Mortgage Plus cc). Keep up the good work !!!!

  • Ina le roux

    Hi Jason, I am a pensioner and only receive my monthly a small amount. I want to apply for certain jobs on the internet but have to pay some amounts, I open a Pay Pal account bur need a credit card, BUT A PREPAID CREDIT CARD, are there no way I can apply for a card at Virgin Money.

    Please advise.

    Ina le roux

  • http://www.jasonbagley.com Jason

    Hi Ina, FNB have a cheque card, which works just like a prepaid credit card in that you can use it to purchase good online, but it transacts off your positive balance in your bank account. Give FNB a call and ask them about it!

Work with me

Would you like a blog like this? Does your brand need a mobile presence? Want to know more about Social Media and how you can benefit from it? Get in touch with me!

All content is mine, so please don't steal, mmkay? :) RSS | Sitemap