Key Post Do I need to have a credit card?

I find the best car hire option is to use my credit card (which has a pretty high limit), and allow the car company to take a block on whatever amount they like. I don't know if all companies would be equally happy to take a debit card (but even if they do, I guess it'd mean you have to have a large amount of cash in your current account).
Also, I'd never buy insurance from the rental company - costs a fortune. Something like Blue Insurance's Car Hire Excess is much better value (and I've claimed against it without issue previously). It means you don't have to worry about how (un)trustworthy the hire company is.
 
Currently have a KBC CC but was looking at options with them leaving. Started to think if I even need one. Only need I can think of is car rental. Are there other situations where they have an advantage or are needed?

I've lived elsewhere where they offer better protection if you perhaps with the credit card. I understand that's not the case here. Basically I don't want to pay the government levy. If its only car rental Ill be okay.
 
I probably don’t need one either and was thinking of getting rid of my one some months back, but i kept it on the basis, its €30 per annum with no further charges applied, if the balance is cleared promptly.

Bit it is true their use, has reduced substantially in recent years, but there remains some albeit quite limited situations, where they still remain convienient.

Some examples:

i can top up my Revolut directly from the credit card

I was charged over a grand of a pre- authorisation on car hire in Italy recently. If you have plenty of cash in your account then, a non issue.

Big ticket items, okay, these are rare, but buying a new sofa set, or a number of appliances, or a large payment for say a bathroom refurb, some long haul flights & hotels.
Some of these items could be 5 to 10k, so a credit card is handy in those situations, if you don’t have immediate access to that level of funds, but can get it, in a few weeks to avoid the excessively high credit card interest charges.

For the above items, which are i admit quite limited, i think €30 a year, is not bad value.
 
I will maintain my KBC card until they remove their Cashback offer of €10 per month for qualifying spending. Based on the wording of their site, I would expect this feature to be removed before the Credit Card is moved to BOI. This card brings in €90 per year net of stamp duty.

I also use an Avant Credit Card, again with cashback, but with my spending it's a bit more hit or miss for me, varies between €8-€12 per month. I also have a much higher limit purely for those one off purchases like fayf mentioned above. Again, this card brings in €90 per year net of stamp duty.

While I won't get rich from these, I consider them to be sponsors of some of the many subscription services popping up in life these days - Netflix/Disney/YouTube Premium etc.

I have not paid credit card interest in about 20 years, but ultimately I see credit cards as a system where the card provider is waiting for people like me to come off the rails.

Avant occasionally dangle the offer of a 6-month interest free transfer of 90% of my card limit straight to my bank account. I don't have a use case for it, but I can see how it might help some people over the line in big once off spending e.g. home improvement, of course of they can repay within the 6 months.

Finally, on a card skimming/fraud front, accurate or not, I always have it in my mind that should an issue arise, the card provider/bank will be more concerned about their money over my money.
 
I was in France about two weeks ago. For some reason my EBS debit card stopped working a week in to my holiday. I had phoned them and told them that I would be away in France for a week as I was advised to do this by a staff member in their Stillorgan office. I am not sure if the person I spoke with in the EBS card section put some sort of OK on it for a week and then it froze?

Couldn't purchase train tickets from a machine at an unmanned train station. Thankfully I had brought my credit card as a back up.

I will keep my credit card for this reason only, as a back up.
 
Interesting points. I will have Revolut as a backup anyway.

I can top up my Revolut from my bank account.

Didn't know car rental places accepted debit cards.

I don't see me needing to use the cc for credit or one off big payments.

Not sure it's worth using the credit card for all my payments just to max cash back. Being with ptsb now making transactions with them actually reduces my fees.

I used do it in north America but was worth way more than €100 a year.

I imagine a lot don't use credit cards for credit really.

Thanks
 
We have a joint current acc and then both have our own Revolut. I had moved the C. Acc from KBC earlier in the year, but just closed the Credit Card Account. Figured that €30 can go towards the PTSB current acc fees.

Its pretty much an instant transfer from the bank to revolut if needed, so for this reason i felt I no longer needed the extra card. it was purely as mentioned above for convenience rather than credit.

Havent missed it so far. Going on holiday in 2 weeks will let you know if I change my mind - I did have an issue a few years ago in France that only my Credit card worked in some places.

50
 
We‘re in France at the moment and we‘ve had intermittent issues across our cards, so I’d definitely recommend at least one backup. Seems to be mainly with tap/touch payments, with PIN it’s been ok.
 
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