I received my first credit card and PIN. I want to buy a couch for $2000, and pay if off over three months. I am wondering how that works here if it is the same as in N America. What the rate is, etc. Also some experiences with this. Are there credit bureaus here?

Why don't you save up for 3 months and then buy it with cash. The feeling is great and you save the rather high interest charges charged by the dear old Credit card company.

The secret to credit cards is beat them to hell all month long and then on the last day, pay them off in full EVERY MONTH !

At our cantonal bank (BCV) there is little option to hammer the credit card like you can back in the UK. From recollection, it was automatically set up to be paid off every month via direct payment from the current account.

Your best bet is to refer to the T&C's of your credit card company.

I think you can get a couch for about $700 in IKEA and spend you other $1400 on a table and chairs, a bed, some bedding, some curtains etc etc All in IKEA...

Dont borrow money unless you need to, most certainly not for a couch that you can save up for in three months or buy a cheaper/adaquate version for now...

Two items that you might consider borrowing money; 1) A car 2) An appartment/house.

I am talking 3 months so I pay maybe $20 more total. Don't want lectures. thank you. I am not buying an Ikea couch!

Hmm......I thought I left all that typical Danish "I know better" attitude back in Denmark.

In the original post I don't see any question about if the sofa should be purchased on credit or cash so why lecture about it?

I am quite sure that "expat in zug" knows that buying on credit is more expensive that buying cash, so why bother?

I am sorry that I can not give you any answers in relation to your question but I suggest that you give the CC-company a call or read the T&C as tolalala suggest.

Sorry, your right, no letures.

Borrow money. Next month you could borrow some more money to buy a table and chairs; and month following a new monster flat screen TV. In the January sales you could get yourself an new 3G iPhone, cause it wont be any cheaper but who cares cause you could borrow the money to buy it!

I think your being a little extreme. It's perfectly reasonable to buy something on credit and pay it off over three months, that whats the credit market is there for. Waiting until you pay for it in cash means exactly that - waiting - and you could apply it to cars, houses and pretty much anything as mentioned.

To Expat_in_zug, as Tolalala has said on our credit terms by BCV which is cantonal of course, we are actually duty bound to repay the card each month as I inquired about making a smaller payment one month and they said for this they would redirect me to take out a personal loan and pay it all off with that then slowly repay the loan. It seems quite an unusual card setup because although they get their purchasing fee they are presumably not interested in managing the ongoing interest payments but I suspect it is my misunderstanding in teh end. Although it is not a solution for you I would recommend giving your CCC a call, as T&C's can be hard to understand, and just asking them.

We have the SBB Visa card that is combined with their Halbtax card (and we stay in Zurich). I could choose on the application form whether to pay of the full amount every month or the minimum. So now every month I get a bill that states the required (minimum) payment and when it is due, but also the full amount outstanding. So we often pay more than the minimum, but you can pay off over some months if you need to. I am not sure about how many months - I think it is 6 months.
But as said this is probably different from canton to canton and company to company.

Hi,

you can get a Mastercard or Vista card from Coop. The interest you pay is 9.9% and you can pay it off over as many months as you like. However, you must pay at least 5% of the outstanding balance per month. The is no yearly fee for the card which is unusual in Switzerland.

http://www.coop.ch/pb/site/common/no...Lde/index.html

Another card which is useful is the SBB Half price card which you can order as either a full credit card or as a pre paid visa card. Again there is not annual fee for the card. The 125 Sfr you pay for the card is the standard amount for a half price card. Again you can pay off installments as long as you pay at least the mininimum amount each month.

http://mct.sbb.ch/mct/en/reisemarkt/...visa-karte.htm

I hope that helps

Have fun

Martin

whoa this post is crazy now! so since we're at it, if people could list the best cards that would be great! Thank you for the coop card idea! I have a normal card and I have to pay for it next year I think, so if there are good cards here that offer things like, car insurance for a rental car and things like that it would be great. the card companies always charge the merchange 2% - 3%, and that's how they make a lot of their money so some card companies give you a deal on other stuff. I don't want to carry a balance, but cards are good for a few things.

have a read through this; seems the question has already been asked about which is the best swiss credit card.

Swiss Credit Cards

Is it a generational thing or a culture thing? In the US where our friend expat_in_zug comes from I suspect I know they buy almost everything on hire purchase; but not in Europe...

I my mind in Europe, not just Switzerland people didn't used to borrow money for anything that they could reasonably save up for. Reasonable being the time you could be expected to live without it without too much trouble. Indeed the older you get the more this makes sense. I think the culture in Switzerland in particular encourages this not only by the lack of loans availability compared to say the UK or US but by the fact that here, you depts dont die with you; but pass on to your children, major loans such as morgages that is for sure.

Credit cards are nothing more then legalized loan sharks in the main; charging fantasic interest rates on unsecured loans.

"expat_in_zug" I told you to save your money to buy something else or indeed go without the couch for a couple of months cause it is YOUR interests, not mine. If you have money to throw away then please send me a PM and we can meet and you can give it to me, I live in Zug too...

No that's quite obvious that you are buying a very cheap couch if you think you'll pay only $20 for 3 months interest.

If you take a rate of 10% p.a. (credit card company rate) on $2'000, that's already $200 for 1 year. You propose to pay of in 3 months so you are already paying $50, which i fully agree is absolutely chicken feed, just 150% over your estimate !

Rubbish, you don't have a credit card, you have a debit card in this case

Rules concerning consumer credit and banks are federal

We are talking 3 months, what's this culture of having everything now any pay later....., we tried that and it screwed up real good ! Very good advice on reading the T&C that should answer most questions

Personally I know I will not use it irresponsibly and buy stuff I cant afford and have no idea how I will pay it off. It is a great tool (at a cost) to bridge cashflow 'gaps'.

For me there have been good uses of our card, eg buying flight tickets well in advance while the cheaper class and dates are still available but paying off over some months, buying an annual ZVV pass and saving a lot compared to monthly tickets then paying off over next few months.

Anyways - each to his own - to me it is a tool, not an evil thing controlling me that needs to be avoided at all cost.

This thread isn't about whether it is a good idea to use a credit card or not - it is about the best deal and are there credit rating agencies in Switzerland.

Please stay on topic or posts will be deleted.

Thanks

I guess here they don't parcell your bills on that way. You decide each month how much of the credit card bill you will pay between the minimum and the total. The interst rates are between 9% to 15%, at least what I've saw.