First Direct Black to Gold CC

realaledrinker

I have a Black CC with a few weeks left of the 0% deal.

I have just opened a current account after the £35 offer I saw in a magazine insert, have paid £500 in and issued a few cheques.

I will want to transfer onto a Gold CC in a few weeks & would hope to get a credit limit increase as well.

Anyone able to advise on best course of action, i.e.

-Try for an increase on line now on Black when I still have a balance (what happens when you key in the new limit you want & press Proceed?)

-Wait until I have paid off the balance, then try for a limit increase, then go for a card transfer

-Pay off Black card, apply to transfer to Gold &, if successful, try for a higher limit before stoozing.

Will any of the above result in a credit search?

Any advice gratefully received.

Pricy147

I dont have a first direct card - but the best policy for all cards I have tried this on (which I do as gospel before renewing a deal) is your second point:

"Wait until I have paid off the balance, then try for a limit increase, then go for a card transfer"

you have 6/9 whatever months payment history - whearas on a new card you have none. You have also cleared your balance which looks good.

They are less likely to give you an increase on a new card with no payment history (even though you had a previous card), and also less likely with a balance remain (especially a high one) as you havent proved you can pay it off!

If you are a high stoozer - be careful when requesting increases - I have known some cards to actually reduce limits when they find out what you actually owe to other cards....although I have managed to talk them around - but best avoided!

ethelhead

Don't know if this is useful...
My First Direct "black" visa 0% deal is about to expire. I'd already upped the credit limit in December just in case they were prepared to extend the deal. Rang them in the last half hour to ask for extension and as per other posters experiences they refused to extend, but checked my salary, then offered upgrade to their Gold Card and asked how much I wanted to increase the credit limit. Another 6 months at 0% ;D However they do have lots of history - I've banked with them for 10 years & this new gold card will be my 3rd FD card. I seem to recall from some other thread that they don't do external credit checks.

isasmurf

When I did this, I used the tatic I want to cancel my credit card and when they asked why I told them I wanted a card with a 0% deal.  They said, "hmm lets see what we can do... we can give you a gold card wth 0% for 6 months".  At the same time they also increased my credit limit by over six times what it used to be without me even asking for an increase.

Other posters have increased their credit limit online just before transferring to a Gold card, which I believe you can also do online without any problem.

This usually does not result in a credit search, as First Direct like most other banks build up their own file on their existing customers and use that when you want to take out more credit.

realaledrinker

Thanks for the responses guys!

dealseeker

Yes I got the same offer to go GOLD when I suggested I would cancel at end of my 6 month introductory period. ;D


No increase in limit available for me though. Did try but couldn't increase as I had no record with them other than the last BT and min payments and virtually no transactions through the bank account (except to get the £25 introductory offers :P).

They reset the cards available for you to BT to (otherwise they would charge a fee). So I can do a couple of extra free BTs during the 6 month period just to make sure my credit balance is to the max. ;D

Also watch out - they messed up my direct debit payment because they change the BACS code going from black to gold and that wasn' recognised by my current account holder so DD request was rejected. All covered by BACS guarantee as it was 100% their fault. Disappointing as I had asked them more than once to confirm that everything would transfer without me having to do anything. :-/

Here's hoping they start a Platinum card

mary

What's your advice. Both of us (husband + I) will receive our final 6th month statement 20th+ Jan and will have until "due date" to pay it all back. Not a problem as it's stooze money, but what's the best plan.

A) Pay back the whole lot and then ask for a gold card
a week or two later or
Ask to transfer to a gold card before the deadline.

In both cases, like you, we simply went for the original £25 each, have a current account with them with £1 in and our normal current accounts are elsewhere, i.e. no history with them.

Reaper

I'd advise you to:

1) See if you can get any increase to your credit limits online.
2) Pay off the balances.
3) Phone them up and ask to switch to another card with the same credit limit.
4) Stooze the money back onto it.

That's what I'm doing. I've done step 1 and step 2 happens on Monday.

realaledrinker

Reaper,

What did your credit limit go from/to, if you don't mind me asking.

Has your Black card got anything on it other than for the BT and min payments?

mary

Did you get an instant online decision as to whether they would up your limit?

Reaper

To answer both of your questions:

My FD card only has one giant stooze on it. My limit was £22,600. I went on to the screen where you can request an increase and it immediately suggested upping it to £25. Nice. It helps that I have banked with FD almost since they started.