Available credit %

TFD_2

I'm gearing up for my credit file to start cleaning itself up next year as my nasties hit their 6th birthday.

At the moment, as I don't have a lot of available credit, my credit file is showing that I'm using 77% of my available credit, which I guess is a bit high.

As well as paying some stuff off, I figured getting some more available credit would help! Vanquis have just taken me on at a bargain 59.9% APR (4 times the interest on my new Barclaycard), which is a start.

Does anybody have an idea of what sort of percentage different card issuers view as healthy, or at least acceptable?

TFD

CLAPTON

the best level of debt is zero ..that way you pay no interest
using your credit cards and paying in full is just fine for your credit rating as it shows you are responsible with money.

TFD_2

CLAPTON wrote: »

the best level of debt is zero ..that way you pay no interest
using your credit cards and paying in full is just fine for your credit rating as it shows you are responsible with money.

Cool, well that's not going to happen for next year as I've still got about £35K to clear in total, so that post was neither helpful or on topic.

As for "responsible with money", you have no idea why I owe money, or how responsible I am. Everytime anybody comments on credit, you preach about being debt free. It gets boring.

loopy.magic

Not sure about the healthy level question , but I'll definately be keeping track of this thread as I'm using a very similiar % level of the credit available to me.

Not sure if it will still work but I successfully applied for the Halifax One Card about 2 years ago, I did this because I had the BOS Platinum card and knew that HBOS accounts are taken into account for the application process. And because of my good management and payment history with the latter card I got the new card at a pretty good 19.9%. Might just have been luck :think:

Unless you've racked up a few credit searches now it maybe worth an attempt with another card from one of your existing credit card companies.

TFD_2

loopy.magic wrote: »

Unless you've racked up a few credit searches now it maybe worth an attempt with another card from one of your existing credit card companies.

Yeah I'm credit search maxed-out at the moment. Also going to be about a year before I can look for mainstream credit cards really.

Rob71

Dumb question - where does it say on your credit report what % you're using? I've got my Experian stuff and there's nothing on there that leaps out...

I'd be interested in seeing this number!

TFD_2

Rob71 wrote: »

Dumb question - where does it say on your credit report what % you're using? I've got my Experian stuff and there's nothing on there that leaps out...

I'd be interested in seeing this number!

There's a summary page on the report that lists total debt, number of searches, court info, etc. It's one of the figures on there.

Not sure if it depends on which Experian report you look at?

CLAPTON

TFD wrote: »

Cool, well that's not going to happen for next year as I've still got about £35K to clear in total, so that post was neither helpful or on topic.

As for "responsible with money", you have no idea why I owe money, or how responsible I am. Everytime anybody comments on credit, you preach about being debt free. It gets boring.

maybe

-your post gave no indication of your level of debt... maybe on reflection you may consider that relevant

- my comment on being responsible with debt is my perception about how lenders will view some-one who uses their credit cards regularly and pays in full

- and I'm sure many of my posts are very boring but you do have the usual remedy.

loopy.magic

TFD wrote: »

There's a summary page on the report that lists total debt, number of searches, court info, etc. It's one of the figures on there.

Not sure if it depends on which Experian report you look at?

I see this % figure on my experian report as well, on the summary page.

TFD_2

CLAPTON wrote: »

maybe

-your post gave no indication of your level of debt... maybe on reflection you may consider that relevant

- my comment on being responsible with debt is my perception about how lenders will view some-one who uses their credit cards regularly and pays in full

- and I'm sure many of my posts are very boring but you do have the usual remedy.

Dude, I've got no problem with you being boring. There's plenty of more boring people on here, and also people that contribute nothing, which is clearly not the case with you.

I just find comments like that unhelpful sometimes, as my post was clearly not asking for whether I should pay by debt off! I would if I could, but it takes time.

The debt showing on my credit file (i.e. in my name) is roughly £17K, which makes up 77% of my available credit.

My desire to get different credit products next year is for 2 reasons - to move debt that isn't in my name over into my name, and also to try to reduce the amount of interest I'm paying, to allow me to pay off quicker.

izools

It's best to keep atleast 33% available as a bare minimum, 50% to be taken seriously by most lenders, and 66% if you want to be 100% sure no lender will see you as under debt stress.

Equally important is your debt to income ratio, which should be under 50% of annual salary to be taken seriously, preferably much less - as you know Barclaycard demand their customers owe 10% or less of their income to be considered for all but the basic cards.

It might not be worth using the Experian thingy as it doesn't take Defaults into account when calculating available credit but you can be sure any prospective creditor will!