Which credit card for Mother?

izools

Hello all!

Just wanting some advice which credit card you think would be best for my mother. She has a balance on her Argos Card (27.9%), MBNA Platinum Plus (18.9%), and RBS Classic Mastercard (15.9).

Credit file is spotless, not one missed payment in over three years and even then I think one missed payment on one account in all the six years history on her credit report.

Can't go with a credit card company that searches Equifax though, as she has a Barclaycard in an AP on EQ, but shows as up to date never missed a payment on EX. She could easily afford to bring it out of an AP, but why bother if they aren't charging her interest? Hehe.

Only possible down side that could affect her application is an income : debt ratio of about 50%, which is rather high.

I've narrowed it down to these choices:

Egg Card
Lloyds TSB Platinum Mastercard
Halifax Plus Credit Card

Any other recommendation? Who do you think is most likely to provide the required xfers?

Cheers!

rb10

Bear in mind that the Lloyds TSB card requires a £100 minimum spend in the first three months. Because of the way that Lloyds allocate your payments, all the payments that you make will be coming off the balance transfer - meaning your mother will be charged interest (typical 15.9% APR) on your £100+ of purchases for the whole time until the balance transfer is paid off.

So although the BT itself is 0%, they've found a way of ensuring they do get some interest from you throughout your time with their card!

If your mother already has any accounts with either Halifax or Egg, they may have pre-approved credit cards for her.

PNPSUKNET

I would get rid of the ap really, it will do more harm and in the long run will cost you more than the intrest.

Out of the 3 it would be egg, halifax / lltsb are very strict

izools

OK cool Egg it is then.

Thanks for that. I've tried explaining that she wouldn't need to pay interest on her other balances if she took the Barclaycard out of an AP because it would enable her to transfer to a 0% deal more easily, but she won't have it.

I suspect if she can get the Egg card it'll be easier convincing her to reinstate her Barclaycard to good working order.

Egg only search Experian right? Do you know how they are with their limits? She has about £6,600 to transfer and her gross annual income is about £23.5K. She has £4,500 debt elsewhere (Barclaycard) not being transferred.

EDIT: rb10, she used to have a TSB Trustcard but paid that off and closed it a couple of years ago. Because she hadn't used it in about a decade it only had a £400 limit when she closed it lol had been open since 1983 without a missed payment though! She banks with RBS, so no pre-approved offers from anyone else, I think Egg it'll have to be; depending on what feedback we get regarding their generosity with limits

Moggles_2

Unless your mother happens to bank with HSBC (the bank has a market-leading offer for current account holders at the mo), I can't improve on your short-list.

In particular, the Halifax Plus credit card is a straight forward, no-strings deal.

As you know, 13 months at 0% is currently available to new customers on balance transfers made in the first 90 days. There's a 3% BT fee.
It's not an exact science of course, but IME (and from feedback here), credit limits are generous and the minimum monthly payment is just 1% of the balance shifted

http://www.halifax.co.uk/creditcards/pluscard136.aspifaxith

izools

Okey dokey Moggles thanks!

So torn between Egg and Halifax now, conflicting reports.

Any more input to help decide between the two would be super

Moggles_2

rb10 wrote: »

Bear in mind that the Lloyds TSB card requires a £100 minimum spend in the first three months. Because of the way that Lloyds allocate your payments, all the payments that you make will be coming off the balance transfer - meaning your mother will be charged interest (typical 15.9% APR) on your £100+ of purchases for the whole time until the balance transfer is paid off. So although the BT itself is 0%, they've found a way of ensuring they do get some interest from you throughout your time with their card!

To avoid interest on the £100 spend accruing once the 0% on purchases expires, she would need to pay off the balance, then request her balance transfer(s) within 6 weeks of account opening

izools

Oh I see... that's a good point actually.

Trust you to make the decision even more difficult.

So Egg are more lenient and Halifax are more generous, correct?

Although if Halifax are strict, surely this means that their rate for risk policy would just result in a higher follow on rate...?

Moggles_2

izools wrote: »

Oh I see... that's a good point actually. Trust you to make the decision even more difficult.

Sorry if I've muddied the waters again.

... Although if Halifax are strict, surely this means that their rate for risk policy would just result in a higher follow on rate...?

Anecdotal evidence suggests that Halifax is not particularly strict when compared with other market-leading BT cards. That said, because of the sheer volume of applications received, all BT card providers are in a position to cherry-pick applicants to some extent.

If I were you, I'd choose on the basis of what's on the table now. Who knows what will happen in 12 months time?

The only foolproof way to keep standard rates down is to ditch and switch, as necessary

Very best
M

Sally22_2

I applied for an Egg card and stated a 19150 income, and got a limit of 4500. Im 22 and had 3 other credit cards at the time. That was about 8 months ago.

Havent had any experience with Halifax sorry.