Trouble getting a life of balance CC

Frontera2

Hi,

My other half has recently applied two 2 seperate insitutions (with some weeks between the two) (Lloyds & American Express) for a Credit Card with a low life of balance transfer rate.

Unfortunately, in both cases she has been turned down and I can't for the life of me think why and am wondering if someone could shed some light or offer some advice.

She has a perfect credit history (Experian file received yesterday confirms this), and is a homeowner. She holds 2 credit cards currently, A Virgin Card with £800 outstanding and Egg with £300 (Virgin limit is £1k, Egg £500). The Egg card is paid off in full each month and this has been the case for nearly 2 years.

The mortgage is in our joint names and whilst my credit history is not perfect, all my accounts are up to date, have been for over 6 months, and I have no defaults or CCJ's registered against my name.

The reason for her wanting the life-of-balance card is so we can offload my outstanding Captial One CC balance (3.5k) at 16% onto a card with a much lower rate. I've applied in the past for a life-of-balance card and can't get one in my own name.

Is it this last point that could be causing the problem?

Thanks

John

Rafter

John,

From the limits on the existing cards, it may be the size of earnings, although there could be other factors.

Is your 'other half 'on the electoral roll?

The joint mortgage will create a financial association and so your other half might be being impacted by your poorer record.

Lenders use other factors such as your postcode, how long you have been with your bank, whether you are employed or self employed, what your regular outgoings are in relation to your joint income, whether you have other loans outstanding etc, how many loan applications or searches you have made in the last 3 months etc etc.

Just make sure you don't make any more applications until you have some more idea about why you are being declined - too many searches suggests you are desperate and will lead to an immediate decline.

Good luck.

R.

PS - If you can't get a life of balance offer for now, have a go at getting something like a nationwide loan at 6.7% and then try for an LOB card at a later date.

Alternatively get a 0% purchase card and put all your outgoings against that to maximise the amount you can pay capital 1. Just make sure you keep on top of it and don't end up with just as much debt as you started with.