Credit Card Perks

T

tobo

Guest
I am looking to get an Irish credit card. As I will pay off the full balance each month the interest rate has little relevance for me. I am therefore interested to find out which cards offer which perks. My initial research shows that there is very little on offer to Irish customers in the way of Air Miles (or equivalent) or cashback or any of the many other offerings that are available to credit card customers in Britain or elsewhere.

Why is this so?. Does anyone have any recommendations in respect of a card with perks?

Tobo
 
Credit Cards

Hi,

Your right, there is not much on offer in Ireland, when compared with the likes of the UK, or other countries.

One reason for this, is the barrier to entering this Market created by our Government, for new Credit Card Providers (ie the Government Stamp Duty €40 pa, payable upon closing each account & not acknowledged if you switch credit card provider).

From whats on offer here & assuming your going to clear your balance in full each month it looks like some of the better offers are:

- Aer Lingus Tab Points (AIB Bank)
- Ryanair (MBNA)
- Pigsback (MBNA)
- Tesco (Tesco Personal Finance)

Hope this helps

Regards

G>
 
Re: Credit Cards

Ulsterbanks Zinc card will waive the €40 annual fee if you spend over 5,000 with it per annum. Not much of a perk really but still better than most at the moment.

Amex is good too but it might not be accepted everywhere it seems.
 
Credit Cards

From whats on offer here & assuming your going to clear your balance in full each month it looks like some of the better offers are:

- Aer Lingus Tab Points (AIB Bank)
Click to expand...

garrettod, I can't find any info on this on the AIB website and have never heard of it before. At what rate do you accumulate points? Can you post a link to either the AIB or Aer Lingus website where there is info on this? Thanks.
 
AIB Aer Lingus Tab Points

I was just on to AIB about that a moment ago. I didn't get any details on exactly how the tab points work, but it seems you can get either a gold or silver aer lingus credit card. The silver card costs a fee of €100 per annum (plus €40 stamp duty) and allows you to build up tab points. The gold card costs a fee of €200 per annum, allows you to build up tab points and allows you to use the Aer Lingus Gold Circle bars/lounges in Dublin Airport.

As somebody who flew out of the country three times in 2003 this seems a bit of a waste. If I was flying more often it might be convenient.
 
Re: AIB Aer Lingus Tab Points

Hi Almost30,

As I understood it the fee for the Silver and Gold Aer Lingus cards also covers you for travel insurance, so depending on how much you currently pay it might be worth it if you do travel a few times a year.
 
Re: AIB Aer Lingus Tab Points

I am in TAB (not via a credit card) and I received a letter from them about a year ago saying it would no longer be possible for new customers to get gold circle (or whatever they call it) membership by getting a credit card. MAybe they have changed policy again?
 
Changing Credit cards

I have a bog standard credit card with no perks. I want to change to one like AMEX blue or the Pigsback one. I was wondering if it's possible to change credit cards and avoid paying the Government levy twice.

Does anyone know how to do this?
I think the date you pay the levy is around April (could be totally wrong). So could I cancel my present card in March and then start up a new one (with perks) after the levy payment is due thus paying only one levy in the year.

Also someone said the AMEX blue may not be accepted in some places. Can anyone tell me what type of places won't accept the AMEX card.

Thanks in advance.
Kirian
 
c/c charges

Kieran,
I'm afriad not, you are paying your c/c charge in arrears.
So the last charge you got was for the period Apr 02-Apr 03. If you cancel now, you will be charged the fee(Apr 03-Apr 04)
 
Re: Changing Credit cards

Sorry to confuse the issue, but I think Kirian's plan will work. The end of the credit card tax year is 31 March. Any credit card a/c open for any length of time between 1 April 2003 and 31 March 2004 is liable for the euro 40 tax charged at the end of the year. If you close your a/c before 31 March, the credit card company charges you the tax at that point and they will then pass it over to the revenue on 31 March. So if you close your present credit card a/c in early March you will get hit for the euro 40 at that point. End of story with that credit card. If you then waits until after 1 April to open a new credit card a/c you are into a new tax year, the tax on the new credit card will be payable on March 31 2005. The key thing is to make sure your old card is closed before the end of March 2004, if it strays over into April, even by a few days, you are liable for another euro 40 on that card. That's my understanding of it anyhow
 
"Amex is good too but it might not be accepted everywhe

True. Small retailers and restaurants etc. don't like it (because Amex charges then a higher % than MC/Visa). Same goes for a lot of online purchases, utilities bills, etc.

BUT - it's accepted by the likes of Tescos/Dunnes/Superquinn and by 99% of petrol stations. If you've a high weekly spend on fuel & groceries you can clock up substantial cashback credits, which will be applied to your balance on the anniversary of whenever you got your card. Last year I earned just over €200 this way (which means, yes, I spent €20K on the thing... :( ) And next week I'll use it to pay my car tax, which will effectively save me a fiver.

Just make SURE to clear the complete balance every month, because their interest rates (set by Bank of Ireland, who issue the card) are outrageously high...

Dr M.
 
Shanks1

Does anyone else know if shanks comments are correct?

I thought this loophole had been closed this year, ie. closing your a/c before end of March.

Thanks
 
Re: Shanks1

The loophole refers to not paying *any* stamp duty.

I will post more details later, but basically it is well nigh impossible to avoid paying *any* stamp duty once you have a credit card at any point. The only possible exception is a mistake by the bank, but I woudn't rely on that happening.

The current discussion seems to relate to the possibility of paying the duty twice during one year, and to be honest I'm not really sure what particular set of circumstances people are considering here.

There may be some timing issue with the way the banks apply their charges, but if you have one credit card with one bank during one year you can expect to get hit once.

If you vary this by having a second credit card with the same bank or a different bank - you will get hit twice.

If you cancel your card at any point you will get hit - it doesn't matter, the duty applies to the existence of the account not the cessation of it.

If you cancel your card and don't open another one you will of course get no charge for future years, but you wil also have no card.

If you cancel your card and then get a new one - you will of course get hit for two charges. The question of when you get hit is purely and simply a function of what years the cards existed.

Cheers,

z
 
Re: Shanks1

If you have a credit card you can't avoid the stamp duty because if you cancel your card, your bank will charge you the E 40 at that point. I'm 100% sure about this as I closed my MBNA cc last November and my final statement contained the E 40 government stamp duty. Presumably, MBNA will pass this onto the revenue at the end of the cc tax year, ie, 31 March 2004. If you already have a cc but wish to switch to another what's the most cost-effective way to do so?

If you do it this week, for example, you will get hit twice with the stamp duty. Close cc 1, you get charged E 40 on closure of this card. Open cc 2 you will get charged the E 40 stamp duty on 31 March 2004. Keep using cc 2 and you get charged E 40 on 31 March 2005 and so on.

Now to my mind the way to save E 40 is to wait until mid-March, close cc 1, pay the E 40 on this card. Hang tough a couple of weeks and open cc 2 in April, you are now in a new cc tax year and you pay the E 40 stamp duty on this card on 31 March 2005.

If there are any flaws with this approach let us know!!
 
Re: Shanks1

Shanks1 - no flaws other than the chance that you mightn't get approved for the second card. It's only a possibilty, but it is there. some people might take the (small) risk, while some would prefer to pay the extra €40 just to be sure they don't end up with no credit facility. In reality even if the first one turned you down you would presumably get some other card in time, but presumably the point of moving card in the first place is to move to a *particular* one.

z
 
re shanks 1

Shanks suggest closing cc1 in mid-march then wait two weeks before opening cc2. Why not close cc1 on 30th March and open cc2 0n 1st April?
 
Re: re shanks 1

Opening and closing cards isn't an instantaneous transaction.

It would be better to give things a few days to be sure. No point in sending in the cancel notice at the last minute and then being surprised when they forget to cancel it until the next day and you owe another stamp duty charge.

z
 
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