Credit card limits around the world
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Here in Trivandrum, the average credit card limit is only around USD 1000 and the most they go up to is usually around USD 3000. This pretty much renders them useless to make any serious purchases - you can't buy a car on credit for instance. What are typical limits in other countries? I vaguely remember my boss in the US having a card with about USD 25K limit. What about Canada? Nish
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Here in Trivandrum, the average credit card limit is only around USD 1000 and the most they go up to is usually around USD 3000. This pretty much renders them useless to make any serious purchases - you can't buy a car on credit for instance. What are typical limits in other countries? I vaguely remember my boss in the US having a card with about USD 25K limit. What about Canada? Nish
Nishant S wrote: you can't buy a car on credit for instance I bought a new car recently in the UK and there was a limit to how much you could pay on credit card for it. I think it was about 1.5% of the value of the car, the retailer said this is because of the 2.5% that the credit card people will charge them and therefore hit their profits.
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Here in Trivandrum, the average credit card limit is only around USD 1000 and the most they go up to is usually around USD 3000. This pretty much renders them useless to make any serious purchases - you can't buy a car on credit for instance. What are typical limits in other countries? I vaguely remember my boss in the US having a card with about USD 25K limit. What about Canada? Nish
In the UK credit limits are in general far too high to be practical. Brendan and I both have cards with £4000 limits, and have to keep phoning the bank to stop them putting them up further (I owe nothing, Brend currently owes about £90 which we used to make purchases in South Africa over December when cash machines weren't handy - I guess HSBC hate us :laugh: ). Brendan also has another credit card account with approximately the same credit limit, which we also rarely use. With these UK credit cards combined we could actually buy a small, but nice, flat in our home town in South Africa, and have often considered doing so. With such large credit limits given so easily it's hardly surprising that so many people over here have debt problems. It's actually very sad.
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Here in Trivandrum, the average credit card limit is only around USD 1000 and the most they go up to is usually around USD 3000. This pretty much renders them useless to make any serious purchases - you can't buy a car on credit for instance. What are typical limits in other countries? I vaguely remember my boss in the US having a card with about USD 25K limit. What about Canada? Nish
Nishant S wrote: This pretty much renders them useless to make any serious purchases - you can't buy a car on credit for instance. Most forms of credit are tailored to what you're likely to buy with them - credit cards are designed for general day to day purchases If you're buying a car, you can often get a far better deal getting a loan from a bank, or even getting credit from the car dealer (I bought my car on 3 year's interest free credit, even though I had the money ready to buy it there and then - so I could keep the money in a high interest account and get an extra £50/month ($90ish)) If you were buying a house you'd go to a bank and get a mortgage, you wouldn't think "Hmm, I'll just slap this on my credit card" -- Help me! I'm turning into a grapefruit! Phoenix Paint - back from DPaint's ashes!
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Here in the US, it's pretty easy to get a very large limit by paying off significant purchases that were near the credit limit. This is true even when you use balance transfers to other credit cards, as long as you don't let the total balances get too high. I've got one card I've had for about 11 years with a 31,000 limit, and several over 15,000. I probably should be anonymous, to avoid the sights of scammers...
Same in the UK When I went to university, I got a student bank deal, that gave me a £1200 ($2200US) overdraft, and a credit card with a £700 ($1300) limit The overdraft came in very handy (and still does), but the card sat in the bottom of a drawer unused (I knew it'd be too much temptation to have it in my wallet) Once I graduated and got a job I started using it more (mostly for internet purchases, as you get far better protection if something goes wrong if you buy with a credit card) Then I became unemployed - but I'd got into the habit of using my credit card, so stupidly I kept on using it, getting more and more in debt, until the card was maxxed out. Only to find the bank instantly upped my limit to £1000 (without asking me if I wanted it, I just noticed on a statement that the limit had gone up) But by that point I'd come to my senses, and stopped using the card again. Eventually I got a temp job, so had cash coming in, which let me gradually pay the card off Only for the bank to raise my limit again (to about £1500) - remember I wasn't earning much more than minimum wage at this point, but my bank was happy to keep offering me more credit! Pretty much every time I max the card, they'll put the limit up a little bit, and every time I pay it off again they put the limit up again too. The last time I looked, the limit was something scary like £3000 ($5600) - I might be able to buy a small car with it fairly soon! -- Help me! I'm turning into a grapefruit! Phoenix Paint - back from DPaint's ashes!
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Here in Trivandrum, the average credit card limit is only around USD 1000 and the most they go up to is usually around USD 3000. This pretty much renders them useless to make any serious purchases - you can't buy a car on credit for instance. What are typical limits in other countries? I vaguely remember my boss in the US having a card with about USD 25K limit. What about Canada? Nish
And it's a good thing too. If you want to buy something that expensive you should have the money first and not be relying on credit... especially credit on a credit card as the interest is way higher than a standard loan. I have a €700 limit on my card (the usual is around €2000 but I asked for €700). If I need to buy anything over €700 I put the money onto the card so that I have a debit balance on my CC card. I'm not sure if you can do this everywhere, for example, the bank that Ulla uses in Germany does not allow her to do this. When I was buying my laptop (€2000) I put €1500 onto my credit card so I had ineffect €2200 to spend on my CC. After I bought it I had a credit balance of €500 on my CC so I still have €200 left to buy those little extras. If I was going to buy a car with my credit card (I have no idea why I would wnat to do that) I would just put the money onto the credit card first. It doesn't cost anything and I can do it through internet banking, so it's not effort. Regards, Brian Dela :-) Now Bloging![^]
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And it's a good thing too. If you want to buy something that expensive you should have the money first and not be relying on credit... especially credit on a credit card as the interest is way higher than a standard loan. I have a €700 limit on my card (the usual is around €2000 but I asked for €700). If I need to buy anything over €700 I put the money onto the card so that I have a debit balance on my CC card. I'm not sure if you can do this everywhere, for example, the bank that Ulla uses in Germany does not allow her to do this. When I was buying my laptop (€2000) I put €1500 onto my credit card so I had ineffect €2200 to spend on my CC. After I bought it I had a credit balance of €500 on my CC so I still have €200 left to buy those little extras. If I was going to buy a car with my credit card (I have no idea why I would wnat to do that) I would just put the money onto the credit card first. It doesn't cost anything and I can do it through internet banking, so it's not effort. Regards, Brian Dela :-) Now Bloging![^]
Hmmm, Then why have a credit card at all, Brian? Why don't you just use your debit card? Nish
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Here in Trivandrum, the average credit card limit is only around USD 1000 and the most they go up to is usually around USD 3000. This pretty much renders them useless to make any serious purchases - you can't buy a car on credit for instance. What are typical limits in other countries? I vaguely remember my boss in the US having a card with about USD 25K limit. What about Canada? Nish
I'm not sure what the max limit is. I know that the bank keep increasing mine. I'm at £7500 now. Its all a trick to try and make me spend more than I can afford to pay off in the month. I only use my credit-card for convenience and always pay off the whole amount at the end of the month. Michael CP Blog [^]
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I'm not sure what the max limit is. I know that the bank keep increasing mine. I'm at £7500 now. Its all a trick to try and make me spend more than I can afford to pay off in the month. I only use my credit-card for convenience and always pay off the whole amount at the end of the month. Michael CP Blog [^]
Michael P Butler wrote: I only use my credit-card for convenience and always pay off the whole amount at the end of the month. Why not use a debit card then? What convenience does a credit card have over a debit card in your case?
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Hmmm, Then why have a credit card at all, Brian? Why don't you just use your debit card? Nish
Nishant S wrote: Then why have a credit card at all, Brian? Damn useful when I am out of the country. Oh, and most internet sites that I use to buy things don't take Irish debit cards (I'm not sure if they take debit cards at all... e.g. Amazon, Komplett, Crucial, etc, etc, etc) Nishant S wrote: Why don't you just use your debit card? Not sure about Indian debit cards, but you can't use the Irish debit cards in forgeign countries. I also use a credit card for small purchases as I don't get charged any interest on my CC becuase I always pay it off on time. I essentially only use it when I know I have, or will have soon, the money to pay it off and when I want to make online purchases. Regards, Brian Dela :-) Now Bloging![^]
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Hmmm, Then why have a credit card at all, Brian? Why don't you just use your debit card? Nish
Don't forget fraud protection If you buy something on a debit card, and it's faulty, or never gets delivered, or eats your grandmother's cat, you'll have to go to the retailer and complain, and try and get a refund If you buy something with a debit card, and the retailer goes bust, then you're somewhat screwed (you might eventually get your money back, but it'll be tough) If you buy anything on a credit card, then you've got an extra level of protection, as the credit company has joint liability (which means even if the retailer won't give you a refund, the credit company will) - the same goes if someone gets hold of your card number and makes fraudulent purchases - you can reclaim this from the credit company too. That's why you should be very careful using a debit card online -- Help me! I'm turning into a grapefruit! Phoenix Paint - back from DPaint's ashes!
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Nishant S wrote: Then why have a credit card at all, Brian? Damn useful when I am out of the country. Oh, and most internet sites that I use to buy things don't take Irish debit cards (I'm not sure if they take debit cards at all... e.g. Amazon, Komplett, Crucial, etc, etc, etc) Nishant S wrote: Why don't you just use your debit card? Not sure about Indian debit cards, but you can't use the Irish debit cards in forgeign countries. I also use a credit card for small purchases as I don't get charged any interest on my CC becuase I always pay it off on time. I essentially only use it when I know I have, or will have soon, the money to pay it off and when I want to make online purchases. Regards, Brian Dela :-) Now Bloging![^]
When I was in the US, my debit card doubled up as a MasterCard cred card that I could use on the internet [I even used it after returning to India to buy mom a Microwave as a gift] But my debit card here in India is a Visa Electron card, that only lets me use it at shops (where they have that swiping machine). I can't use it on the internet :-( But I know that my friend in the US has a debit card that's Visa (not Visa Electron) that he uses for online purchases. So maybe it's the Electron-attribute of my Visa debit card that prevents me from using it on the internet. Nish
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Don't forget fraud protection If you buy something on a debit card, and it's faulty, or never gets delivered, or eats your grandmother's cat, you'll have to go to the retailer and complain, and try and get a refund If you buy something with a debit card, and the retailer goes bust, then you're somewhat screwed (you might eventually get your money back, but it'll be tough) If you buy anything on a credit card, then you've got an extra level of protection, as the credit company has joint liability (which means even if the retailer won't give you a refund, the credit company will) - the same goes if someone gets hold of your card number and makes fraudulent purchases - you can reclaim this from the credit company too. That's why you should be very careful using a debit card online -- Help me! I'm turning into a grapefruit! Phoenix Paint - back from DPaint's ashes!
Thanks benjymous. Finally, I got a decent reason why credit cards are more useful than debit cards :-)
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Here in Trivandrum, the average credit card limit is only around USD 1000 and the most they go up to is usually around USD 3000. This pretty much renders them useless to make any serious purchases - you can't buy a car on credit for instance. What are typical limits in other countries? I vaguely remember my boss in the US having a card with about USD 25K limit. What about Canada? Nish
UK it's probable £6000 ($12000) without trying
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UK it's probable £6000 ($12000) without trying
You can get about £2000 ($4000) overdraft.
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Thanks benjymous. Finally, I got a decent reason why credit cards are more useful than debit cards :-)
There are other benefits too - some credit cards give you reward points or cashback - my parents have an egg[^] card that gives you 10% cashback on purchases (so if they spend £100 they get £10 back) - they use the card for everything, but pay off the full balance every month -- Help me! I'm turning into a grapefruit! Phoenix Paint - back from DPaint's ashes!
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There are other benefits too - some credit cards give you reward points or cashback - my parents have an egg[^] card that gives you 10% cashback on purchases (so if they spend £100 they get £10 back) - they use the card for everything, but pay off the full balance every month -- Help me! I'm turning into a grapefruit! Phoenix Paint - back from DPaint's ashes!
Be careful with that Egg deal - I've got an Egg card and it is only with certain retailers, for anyone not on the list the cashback is only 0.5%
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Chris Maunder wrote: I've got an AmEx which in theory has no purchase limit :confused: An unlimited credit card? Wow!
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Nishant S wrote: This pretty much renders them useless to make any serious purchases - you can't buy a car on credit for instance. Most forms of credit are tailored to what you're likely to buy with them - credit cards are designed for general day to day purchases If you're buying a car, you can often get a far better deal getting a loan from a bank, or even getting credit from the car dealer (I bought my car on 3 year's interest free credit, even though I had the money ready to buy it there and then - so I could keep the money in a high interest account and get an extra £50/month ($90ish)) If you were buying a house you'd go to a bank and get a mortgage, you wouldn't think "Hmm, I'll just slap this on my credit card" -- Help me! I'm turning into a grapefruit! Phoenix Paint - back from DPaint's ashes!
benjymous wrote: so I could keep the money in a high interest account Where 'o where do you find one of those? ... the "highest" rate account I've seen around here is about 2 1/2 percent ... hardly what I would consider "high". :-(
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Michael P Butler wrote: I only use my credit-card for convenience and always pay off the whole amount at the end of the month. Why not use a debit card then? What convenience does a credit card have over a debit card in your case?
Nishant S wrote: Why not use a debit card then? What convenience does a credit card have over a debit card in your case? Two reasons. 1. Security. A debit-card access my bank-account. Which means any thief or fraudster is getting my money and not the credit-card companies. 2. I don't always have the money, until the end of the month when the credit card balance is due. Michael CP Blog [^]