Capital One Credit Cards - Excellent credit score?

allycatraz

Hello Moneysavers!!

My Halifiax 0% Purchase CC 12 month term is coming to an end. I'm going to try a quick sneaky call and see if I can get it extended but I'm not hopeful that it will be extended... So, I need a new 0% purchase card (I considered a BT card but I can pay off the Halifiax card before the offer ends).

So I had just a quick question regarding the Capital One 0% Purchases credit cards. Martin states on his site that you need an "excellent" credit rating/score. Does anyone know what an "excellent" credit rating would actually be? I'm going to sign up for the free credit report checks and actually see what I have there, but I had a quick look at moneysupermarket.com and used their "Smart Search" which tries to identify which cards would be most suitable to the profile/info you enter. Mine has come back as "good" (again what is good?) and the capital one cards are shown there as suitable. Infact one of the capital one cards appear in the "fair" credit rating section. However I'm slightly dubious whether that particular search is accurate as in the detailed info of that particular card, it states you need an excellent credit rating. How can a card that needs an excellent credit rating be in a section stating that it is suitable for "fair" credit ratings??

Anyhow, maybe i've answered my own question... The next best option looks like the Barclaycard at 0% purchases for 10 months.

Does anyone have one of these 0% purchase/BT Capital one cards?? If so, how "excellent" a credit score do you think is needed??

Thanks for your help!!
Ally

YorkshireBoy

allycatraz wrote: »

So I had just a quick question regarding the Capital One 0% Purchases credit cards. Martin states on his site that you need an "excellent" credit rating/score. Does anyone know what an "excellent" credit rating would actually be?

Capital One's definition of an "excellent credit rating" is given on their website. Why not take a look?

...I had a quick look at moneysupermarket.com and used their "Smart Search" which tries to identify which cards would be most suitable to the profile/info you enter.

A waste of time IMHO, since it doesn't ask for income or current indebtedness.

allycatraz

This is Capital One's definition of an excellent rating for the 0% purchase card...

Excellent

• I have a credit card with a credit limit of at least £5000
• I have had a credit card(s) for at least 5 years
• I have never missed more than 2 payments on a credit card or loan
• I have credit card balances of less than £10,000
• I don't have any previous credit defaults (CCJs, current arrears)

OK, so based on this... I tick all the boxes...
1 card has a limit over £5k
1 card i've had over 5 years (i think), the others definatley not
Never missed a payment (always DD) and student loan is not applicable so thats fine.
No credit defaults
Balance is less than £2k, credit limit total is over £10k

but like you said about the moneysupermarket at that stage "it doesn't ask for income or current indebtedness".

So back to one of my otehr questions...

Does anyone have one of these 0% purchase/BT Capital one cards?? If so, how "excellent" a credit score do you think is needed (based on your own circumstances)??

Thanks
Ally

YorkshireBoy

allycatraz wrote: »

Does anyone have one of these 0% purchase/BT Capital one cards?? If so, how "excellent" a credit score do you think is needed (based on your own circumstances)??

Many people have reported being sent an 'inferior' card to the one they applied for...even though they believed they had an 'excellent' credit rating as defined by Capital One themselves.

Use the forum search tool (top right of the page) and enter "capital excellent" (without the quotes) to see some recent examples. There's one thread on the first page, and several more on the following pages.

If you'd rather not gamble on Capital One, there are other cards available...

http://www.stoozing.com/purchases.php

allycatraz

Hi YorkshireBoy,

Thanks for your reply... I've checked out the rest of the forum and there seems to be a lot of "inferior" cards submitted by Capital One. It also seems on my credit rating files that the card that I have had for 7 years isn't present on there which would fail on of capital ones criteria. Not sure why it's not there, I'll have to investigate. It's a bog standard credit card from HSBC, which is linked with my HSBC current account, so perhaps that has something to do with it.

Anyhow I think the first direct one looks the best (assuming its open to HSBC customers - I know their balance transfers aren't) - thanks for the link!!

YorkshireBoy

allycatraz wrote: »

Anyhow I think the first direct one looks the best (assuming its open to HSBC customers - I know their balance transfers aren't) - thanks for the link!!

The Gold card is only available to FD current account customers.

Additionally, you have to make a BT (at 5.9% APR for life with a 2.5% BT fee) within 2 months to qualify for 0% on purchases for 12 months.

In short, it has more catches than a Grimsby trawler!

allycatraz

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

The Gold card is only available to FD current account customers.

Additionally, you have to make a BT (at 5.9% APR for life with a 2.5% BT fee) within 2 months to qualify for 0% on purchases for 12 months.

In short, it has more catches than a Grimsby trawler!

Yea, Once I'd read through the T&C's I noticed all these clauses which is a damn shame... well more annoying than a shame. Well it looks like its the Barclaycard 10 months 0% purchases. I have the Halifax one (due to end soon) which I think rules out any other Halifax and Bank of Scotland cards...

YorkshireBoy - one other question?? When do you need to have your 0% purchase card cleared (i.e., fully paid off, or balance transferred elsewhere) before they start applying the interest because the 0% term has ended? My 0% ends on 5th September, so do I need have paid/moved the debt by 4th August?? I can't recall where I read it, but I'm sure somewhere it said, you need to pay the card off within the month prior to the last month? So in this case, 4th August would be the last day in the penultimate month??

Many thanks!!
Ally

YorkshireBoy

allycatraz wrote: »

When do you need to have your 0% purchase card cleared (i.e., fully paid off, or balance transferred elsewhere) before they start applying the interest because the 0% term has ended? My 0% ends on 5th September, so do I need have paid/moved the debt by 4th August??

If you're talking about your Halifax card, then the 0% end date has been shown on every one of your statements. You need to clear it by this date....not the month before.

allycatraz

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

If you're talking about your Halifax card, then the 0% end date has been shown on every one of your statements. You need to clear it by this date....not the month before.

Thanks YorkshireBoy. Yes the statement certainly states 5th Sept, so I'll have it paid/moved by no later than then... clearly the site I read about paying by the prior month was wrong or I misinterpreted it...

Maldives_lover

I've just been caught out on this one. Completed online application for the Platinum card with 0% until October 2009 and guess what I was approved for a 0% until May and I get to pay a much higher interest rate as well. I've spoken to a supervisor who "isn't allowed to see any details" so can't comment on why, she suggested that I obtain credit reports but I advised here that I have an excellent credit rating and that I felt Capital One were offering these deals to get people to apply without any real intention of providing the deals to the majority. Can we not all complain to the FSA or FOS (can't remember which one) and ask them to investigate how many people have applied for the deal and how many were actually offered a different deal? Perhaps more people might actually then get the offer they applied for.

mintymoneysaver

I've just been approved ( and received written confirmation) for the 0% on purchases and BTs till oct 09 so I guess I must have an excellent rating.
I do have another couple of credit cards ( not sure what my limit is on them)
I only owe about £300
I have never missed a payment
I have no ccj s etc.
I don't think I have had a credit card for over 5 years, although I have been a named card holder for a long time.
I have applied for a fair few cards in the last two years, paid them off quickly and closed them!

Hope that helps!