Been offered very low BT credit limit :(

Lost_Fan_2

Hi,

This is my first time here. Don't have brilliant credit rating but not too bad. Have O/D of £2K and credit card of £7.5K and thats it.

Credit card has been maxed out for about 6 months and we have been paying as much as we can off it every month although its not been a huge amount more than minimum payment but at this rate it will be approx 17 years!

Came here and went through all the 0% BT advice and decided to apply for a good one but was turned down Applied for a 2nd one which was recommended by my credit score here and was accepted - although it was barclaycard (which just read below was NOT a good choice). Also read Martin's points about not letting it sit there but to use even if lower than you want etc.

My problem is that they only offered £1250 credit limit at 0% BT with 2.5% fee which is really bad against £7.5K. Obviously I now have to use it and will get that amount taken off the other card etc.

BUT should I look for yet another card to try to take the balance or will my credit be affected by trying to take out yet another card? and will my barclaycard limit drop because of this etc.

This is a minefield. The £7.5K card was my first card 6 years ago so this switching and transferring is all new to me. How do we actually transfer from one to other?

Thankyou. Sorry if I am asking really thick questions that are already written somewhere. Have read a lot here to try to find answers but can't.

cifpower

I think your first port of call before applying for even more cards is to ring Barclaycard and ask if they could raise your limit to accommodate a higher BT

exel1966

Most general CSA's have the authority to increase your limit at the card activation stage, usually up to 10% as an average.
If you want more you'll need to speak/write to the 'account underwriters' who have a greater authority. They may well ask for evidence to support your claim for a higher limit so be prepared to answer/send them what they need.

GeorgeUK

I would check your credit file before trying to get any more credit. Usually 3 searches in a 6 month period is ok before the searches start to affect your credit score. If you have just had 2 in a very short space of time, it may be better to wait.

Just remember to transfer whatever has the highest APR to the LOB card.

Staciep88

Hi there,

My OH had same problem, he owed £4.6k on 2 credit cards and when applying for a BT card we could only get a limit of 1k which was with Virgin, so we BT £900 over to that one, leaving one card clear and the other £300 less. I then applied for an egg card and they gave a £500 limit so we are going to BT £450 over to that one, leaving him with approx 3.2k on the original card. Its not ideal but every little helps.

I would ask your current company if they can lower the rate of the credit card and I would also ask your BT card if they can up the limit?

x

Lost_Fan_2

Thanks for your replies - we had thought about asking for a higher credit limit - so will try that.

I didn't know you could BT between partners?? my husband doesn't have a credit card so could apply for one and transfer some of my balance onto his - is that done??? (sorry that seems to be what last poster said?)

normanmark

exel1966 wrote: »

Most general CSA's have the authority to increase your limit at the card activation stage, usually up to 10% as an average.

I dont know about that, most cards (well in my experience anyway) say that they can only increase the limit 4 months after the card activation/account opening. Won't hurt asking of course!