How to gauge a credit card limit in advance???

ianoliver

I am looking to transfer £7300 (curr at 0% which expires in Nov) and an amount of £4800 (curr at 12%) to ideally 1 card at 0%. I am looking at Capital One Platinum and may have to take the 2% bal xfer charge on the chin (approx £242). Thing is, the Cap One Plat card has a credit limit up to £25k and I consider myself to have an excellent credit score, credit history and have not applied for a credit card for over 6 months.......but I only want to go ahead with the card application IF they can take on the 2 exiting joint amounts?? How is it possible to gauge in advance whether I can get at least £12,100 in order to benefit from the transfer of both amounts at 0% til Jan 2007, paying a £242 bal xfer fee as a one off?

This is a minefield but unfortunately one which has been ventured by others before!!

Thanks in advance

Ian

YorkshireBoy

The big problem with Capital One (aside from the 2% uncapped BT fee of course) is that you won't find out what credit limit they've given you until they've received your signed credit agreement back. ie, not only have they searched you, but they've also registered the account with the CRA's. Yes you could then cancel within 14 days but, after undergoing the credit search, this would be biting the hand that feeds! With other card providers, you have the "upper hand" in that you can sometimes negotiate a better credit limit during the activation phone call.

When Mrs YB obtained her Capital One credit card earlier this year, her limit was set at around 35% of salary - and they said they wouldn't look at increasing it for 6 months. Her "available" credit, verified by CRA reports, was ZERO (apart from our very small joint mortgage).

As a credit card stoozers, we've obtained 8 cards this year and, whilst I've got 3 cards with limits in excess of that which you are looking for, I've had to "talk-up" all 3. The only visible "available" credit on my CRA report when I started stoozing was our small mortgage and a small 0% car loan, yet on my first 3 applications I was only being offered around 26% of salary as an initial credit limit.

When you say you "consider" yourself to have an excellent credit report, do you mean you have verified this by obtaining your CRA reports? If not, then this should be your first move prior to making an application - although with a target date of November it doesn't leave you much time to carry out any financial housekeeping prior to making your application.

You don't say what your salary is but it's generally recognised that lenders get nervous when your available/used credit approaches 100% of salary. In calculating this figure they look at what you have now PLUS what they're about to give you. If declined, you may be able to persuade them in an appeal letter that you WILL close down the other 2 accounts once settled with the BT's.

It's a tough call but, in light of what I've said above, you might want to consider making a couple of applications to other providers who have either a capped BT fee or better still, no BT fee.

One closing comment - Capital One have a nasty habit (as reported on these boards) of declining your "card of choice" application and offering you something entirely different!

Good luck.

mountainofdebt

Am curious why you would only accept capital one provided they give you the credit limit that you need..surely to refuse ANY limit at 0% is cutting your nose off to spite your face?

rprinter

from my experience of cc's CapOne gave the meanest credit limit of the lot! Although that was on a 3.9% LOB deal. Barclaycard also low. MBNA, RBS & Lloyds TSB gave the highest.

I agree with mountainofdebt, also they're all in competition with each other and you have to watch them all to find the best deals.

Also, with the 2% fee don't most lenders cap it at £50 maximum fee?

ashmit

from my experience of cc's CapOne gave the meanest credit limit of the lot! Although that was on a 3.9% LOB deal. Barclaycard also low. MBNA, RBS & Lloyds TSB gave the highest.

I've only had two of these but they were the opposite way round for me - Lloyds TSB was a paltry limit and Capital One's over twice the LLoyds TSB one. But, the Cap One they would only give me 6 months not the 18 months I'd applied for.