This morning it was all about sorting out banking and making sure there are no more surprises. A few years ago my credit card was denied for renewal and I needed to know why. There were a few other things that needed sorting out and as we are leaving tomorrow it seemed best to get it done today.
Apparently back in 2020 HSBC decided to cancel all Gold Credit Card accounts and make all account holders select a new credit card. This was not exactly made clear to me at the time and why there was so much confusion. I mentioned I no longer live in the UK and it would be difficult to do a credit check or obtain a credit score in order to apply. He mentioned I Have a very good credit rating and even though he cannot tell me my credit rating I should just apply online which I will do as soon as I get back.
A credit card is not something I use, but it is convenient when you travel abroad and need to pay for all the extras. I have been using my Debit Card for now which is just as good as I am not one to live with debt. My motto is if you cannot afford it then don't buy it and you never get into financial difficulty.
The guy from the bank mentioned 3 different options of cards with the first one being the Balance Transfer Card for those that have existing debt and juggle between credit cards. Nuts I know ,but people do live like this.
The second option is he Purchase Plus Credit Card which gives you up to 18 months of interest free purchases. For those doing up a house and needing a new kitchen or something I suppose this would suit them.
The third option is the Rewards Credit Card which means you get certain perks for using he card as then the banks make money. To be honest neither of the above suit my needs because I don't fall in any of these brackets and when looking at the interest rates (24.9%) told him I would look elsewhere.
He then offered me 4th Credit Card option which had a 23.9% APR, but had more perks for travelling etc and is exactly what I required. Banks are not fond of clients like me because they don't make much money from people who are not in debt. He knows by looking at my spend that I own nothing and never used my credit card like most other people do and if I did it was paid off within the 30 day period.
I have to go back to the bank in the morning for my wife to obtain an extra bank card on our joint account. She never had her passport on her today and she could not be verified 100%. For the last 30 years she has never had her own bank card for this account and now she will finally have her own card. She just never required it because if we had anything to pay we used to share the card and back then most things were cash payments.
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