Credit Card Shuffle Discussion area

Former_MSE_Andrea

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lottieoflondon

I have two credit cards with £3500 and £3000 owing with Barclaycard and monument, my problem is as i discovered when I called to do a balnce transfer is that barclaycard took over monument and they won't do a balance transfer as they are run by one company.

My inital aim is to get rid of the monument card as the interest rate on this card is high.
I was considering capital one but I am not sure what deal to look for, and If I got a capital one card and the balance I am offered is lower than my debt is it really still worth it in the end then paying off three companies

any help and advice most welcome

thanks
Lottie

PW

I normally have an excellent credit rating but I messed it up a few months ago. I had quite large balances with MBNA and capital one but when their 0% offers ran out the cards I applied to only gave me limits of between £500 and £2500, so I had to apply for three cards instead of one. So many credit checks has messed up my credit history, my problem is the 0% on the new cards are only for 6 months so I need to start applying again soon. Will my credit history be suitably rested to allow me to get new credit ? Also how long after closing a credit account down should I leave it before applying to them again ?

Help ???

Gotabiscuit

 Also how long after closing a credit account down should I leave it before applying to them again ?

A lot of companies won't accept a new application for 6 months after closure.

However, MBNA are behind a number of different cards (eg Abbey, A&L, Virgin) and allow you to have more than one. They will even shift credit limits - for example, if you had an Abbey card with a £5k limit and then applied for a Virgin card and were only given a £1k limit, you could close or reduce the limit on the Abbey card and shift it across without having to wait.

Reaper

According to my latest Experian report closed accounts are kept on file for 6 years, credit searches are kept for 1 year.

Of course it is up to each company that uses it how far back it wants to count these against you.

Talos_2

I tend to have six cards activated at a time. 3 are 'live' and are maxed out at 0%. The other 3 are older cards which have no balance but are still active. Every 6-9 months a phone call to the unused card companies requesting "they close the account, unless they have any 0% rates to offer" is usually successfull, so I transfer the maxed out cards to these.

I do find that a least one will not offer any new deal so have to close and apply for a new card, but it restricts the cards I have to apply for to 1 a year. Seems to have worked for the last 18 months so far

Money_Man_Steve

Got a 7.9% APR [glow=red,2,300]life of balance[/glow] deal on a standard NatWest Mastercard just by calling up customer services and asking what rate they had for transfers. Not great, but way better than their standard 17 or 18% APR.

malcolmord

Signed up for a lloyds 12 month 0% - Great

Margaret_Millne

Lloyds TSB only offering 0% six months on web site, where did you get the 12 months deal?

edit: Ignore me - just found it :-[

Martinslovechild

MM - don't spend on the Advance Card, whatever you do - only use it for 0% BT's. That's because they charge interest from the day an item is purchased, i.e. there's no interest-free period for purchases.

Margaret_Millne

Applied for husband, as his Equifax file looks better than mine at present. He never gets his hands on these cards of course, I lock them away . Only intended to take the balance transfer offer then close anyway. Thanks for the advice though.