OneAndOneIs2

Being back at university for a year, I don't really have a proper income any more, so getting interest on what I do have has become of more importance. Since current accounts get a lousy rate of interest, I wanted to put as much cash as possible into my savings account instead, which gets about 5%

The downside there is, of course, that emptying your current account makes it tricky to avoid going into overdraft territory when you spend money, and the bank charges you interest for being overdrawn.

So I opted to finally cave in and get a credit card. I held out for 30 years, that's more than most. The idea being that I could (mostly) empty my current account, put everything on the credit card instead, and then pay off the card every month and, in theory, maximise the amount of interest from the bank without getting hit for using an overdraft.

My bank offered two basic options for a credit card. More, if you count the ones that you pay to own. Which I don't. So, they had two options. One would have gotten me air miles, which I don't have any use for. That left the platinum option, which is free to own and has only one drawback: You have to spend at least £100 in each of the first three months.

Can't see that being a problem...

So I applied for that one, and it arrived yesterday. The PIN number arrived the day before. Ho hum.

It needed to be activated over the phone, so I rang them and went through the palaver. Naturally, "whilst we wait for the computer" they ran through a bunch of attractive ways for me to give them even more money.

I think I confused them.

"Would you like to transfer the balances from your other credit cards to this one?"

"No thanks, I don't have any other credit cards."

"Oh. Would you like balance protection in case you're unable to pay the minimum repayments on your outstanding balance?"

"No thanks, I won't be using the card to buy something unless I already have the money for it."

"Then what the &*^% do you want a credit card for in the first place??"

Okay, they didn't say that last one. But I could tell they were thinking it :o)

Those little issues aside, they activated the card without a problem. It's rather impressive that the first card I own should have an authorized limit of seven thousand pounds - I could have bought my current car outright with this thing.

Easy to see how people can get into so much trouble with their credit cards when banks let you put that much onto them... One of the reasons I never wanted one. I always got such incredulous looks from my peers when I said I didn't have a credit card. They'd always ask questions which essentially boiled down to the same thing: "Then how do you buy things you can't afford?" and couldn't seem to grasp the logic that if you can't afford something, you shouldn't buy it in the first place.

Oh well. I shouldn't complain - their bank charges are what pay for the interest on my savings account :o)