High APR Barclaycard - want to change it???

ralphy

Back in July i applied for and received a Barclaycard Initial card (apr 27.9%, £380 limit). Before you say 27.9%!!! it is a card for people who want to improve their credit rating like myself due to having a bit of debt and a poor credit rating a few years back. I have hardly used it and have paid the balance back in full if i have on the odd occassion.
I want to change the card to one with a more reasonable apr as my credit rating is much better now, i'm debt free and feel as though i didn't really need to apply for this card in the first place.
My questions are, am i able to do this? would it be better to have a zero balance before applying for a new credit card or shall i transfer the £200 i have on it at the moment onto a new card?
I can pay the £200 off in full if i need to and probably will anyway.
I'm not going to be using my new credit card for anything in particular, just a handy back up for emergency's or holiday money, etc;
Any advice?

Galstonian

If you can pay it off and it is 27.9% if you don't then its a very simple choice. Pay it off.

As to whether you would or would not get a card elsewhere it is hard to say, you don't mention why you (might have) needed the Initial card and July to December is not a great deal of time in the world of credit files (in fact many accounts will only just be getting October/November updates).

When you say holiday money do you mean for overseas travel? If so then looking at Nationwides Credit card (for purchases) and Flex account (for cash) are probably the best value options around.

ralphy

...I might use it when abroad for purchases.
I applied for this card because back then i had cleared all my bad debt from previous years, and in the near future i may want a loan or a mortgage and thought that to help my credit rating this card would help me out, just in case.

YorkshireBoy

ralphy wrote:

...it is a card for people who want to improve their credit rating like myself......I have hardly used it...

ralphy wrote:

Any advice?

You're not going to improve your credit rating if you don't use the credit facility offered.

browsingid

I was pretty disappointed when my application to Barclaycard, for their long 0% deal a few years back, netted me a poor credit limit of £400, and an APR of 27.9% once the deal ran out. Of course, a 0% deal is a 0% deal, so I used it up, but when the deal came to an end I decided to cancel.

Having much more healthy rates and limits elsewhere (don't know why they offered me the Initial - I think my credit rating is quite healthy), I called up Barclaycard to cancel, and was transferred to a specialist department (customer loyalty or some such?). I was asked why I was cancelling, and my response was that the shocking interest rate was unattractive, and combined with the very low credit limit, there was no chance I was going to use this card. The operator instantly offered to drop it to 18.9%, but wouldn't go any lower. She then tried to persuade me that it would be a helpful card to have if I was 'stuck' when I was abroad and needed emergency money - my response was that it better not be much of an emergency as £400 isn't going to get me far!

Moral of the story is: Andecdotal evidence suggests that Barclaycard will probably offer you a better rate if you try to cancel citing the high rate as your main problem. So, if you would like to keep your Barclaycard at a slightly lower rate, try that out.

Not sure if this exactly answers your question, but hopefully my experience of Barclaycard might help. My early experiences with credit cards were done via a scattergun effect, applying when I spied a good rate. I doubt it would make much difference whether your Barclaycard is closed or not in the short term, as often the credit reports the providers obtain give information as at a month or two ago.

ralphy

...i took your advice, rang Barclaycard and said i wanted to close my account, They couldn't have kissed my !!!!!! quick enough!

As soon as i said i was unhappy with their APR and credit limit, i suddenly was eligible for their 'Platinum' membership and would instantly be upgraded to a Gold card at least and the APR would go down to 18.9% and further still when the lady i was speaking to had confirmed and arranged this!

She said it was possible that it would go down to around 12% and my credit limit would go up 'just in time for xmas'!

Funny how they don't send you a letter in the post to tell you this, and they only tell you when you want to close your account, etc!

Anyway, i suppose this is better than the crap APR i'm on at the moment...

browsingid

Excellent! Glad it worked out for you.