Foreign Perspectives

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This used to be relatively simple in that it was always the Nationwide for foreign holidays, almost always MBNA for a big limit and generally CapitalOne for a stable low-ish rate.

However, all that’s changed. Although, for the most part the changes are for the better, it means that when you compare credit cards on the various comparison sites there’s a lot more in the way of questions that they need to ask you upfront. For example, these days the Nationwide isn’t the best card to go for if you’re looking for a card to use overseas as the Post Office credit card doesn’t load on as much in the way of cash advance fees as the Nationwide do these days thus when you compare credit cards for use abroad the Nationwide has lost the top spot which it has held for around ten years.

Other things to consider are those cards that don’t charge to withdraw cash. Obviously, you’d not want to be doing that on a regular basis with interest rates being what they are but it’s handy to have a card that will allow you to do that. Sadly, none so far have both dropped the foreign transaction charge and the withdrawal charge but with the competition heating up in overseas use charges perhaps one of them will break ranks and do just that. After all, not so long ago the Nationwide just charged 50p for a cash withdrawal.

Popularity: 5% [?]

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I’m one of those people who try to get appropriate gifts for people and ones that they’d not think of getting for themselves. It doesn’t really seem like a gift to me if it’s something that you’d have bought for yourself anyway.

So something like Tahitian pearls are particularly interesting. Unlike gold or diamonds, pearls are one of those things that don’t really have a commercial value as such or at least not one that’s not jewelry related at any rate. They’re also something that you’d not really expect to be wearing all the time and are that little bit more unusual for that thus fitting the bill of being a relatively unique gift which is itself unusual these days.

Popularity: 6% [?]

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These days all the credit card advertising you see seems aimed at people who have bad credit ratings, but what if you have a good credit rating?

In that case, the range of cards open to you is much wider and the offers available on various aspects of the cards are much better. For example, you can expect to be able to get points or cashback with cards, better interest rates and lower operating costs generally.

Instant Approval Credit Card sites are also a good deal more available to you. With a history of previous bad credit you’ve usually pretty limited access to such sites but if your credit is considered good to excellent then you can access them all (subject the usual restrictions ie US residency, regular income and so on).

How come I’ve an image of an ordinary card if this post is aimed at those with great credit records? Simple: gold and platinum are mostly just prettier pieces of plastic and often it’s the case that you can get the best offers on ordinary cards eg this particular one comes with 0% introductory interest, 6% rebate on gas purchases and no annual fee which beats pretty much all the other offers around these days.

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