Bad credit rating - how to get a card?

Scouse_Mick

I'm a credit card 0% rate tart! I've been trasferring balance from 0% card to 0% card for some years now. I guess the card companies are now getting wise to me as I keep getting turned down when applying for a new card. I guess its cos I've been a bit silly and kept the old accounts open. Even though there's no balance on them they still show up on my credit rating I guess. There's no other reason for a bad credit rating as I've never missed a payment.

Can anyone recommend a credit card which is less fussy on this or another means of getting one? I've got till 1st July to get a new credit card or else start paying massive amounts of interest on the balance I've built up!

newleaf

Surely the knack of tarting, and presumably the whole point, is not to build up balances but to pay them off and become (ultimately) debt free - or am I missing something?

Scouse_Mick

Or you could put the money in a high interest account and make some cash out of the credit card companies....

Scouse_Mick

Either way I still need to get a new card by 1st July.

jay78

Questions...
How many cards do you have?
Which Cards do you have?
What is your available credit in total as a portion to your income?
How much credit have you used?
Have you checked your credit files? There might be something on their that could be affecting your applications other than having a lot of credit available?

Scouse_Mick

Jay,

I've got Nationwide, Halifax, Egg, TSB, Natwest and Abbey. I don't know exactly what the available credit limit is but its about £55-60k I would guess. However I only have debt on two of them. £17,000 worth.

I'm guessing you're right though this is the likely problem. I should have closed the accounts when I finished with them but for one reason or another never did. For example, Egg has an anniversary period (October for me) where you get 0% again.

I'm guessing I don't have time to close them all now in time for it to filter through to my credit record by July 1st.

I checked my credit files a couple of months ago and it was ok. Could check it again I suppose but, again, time is a factor.

I've come unstuck like this before actually - forgetting to get ahead of the end of my interest-free period. A warning to all rate tarts - make sure you keep on top of it!

wannabedebtfreebeth

Have you tried talking to the last people to turn you down? I did this with one card and when I challenged them as to why they had turned me down they changed their minds and gave me the card after all. What have you got to lose by trying??

Scouse_Mick

I was turned down by Capital One and wrote a big letter explaining why they should give me a card but heard nothing back. You're right though - I'll call them on Monday.

richgirl

It can take upwards of 6 weeks for a reply.

Try the free credit score checker at http://www.moneyforums.co.uk/credit_score_calculator.php

movieman

Try the free credit score checker at http://www.moneyforums.co.uk/credit_...calculator.php

Bizarre. I have over 100k in savings and shares, earn about twice the national average wage, have total credit limits of less than half my salary, and zero debts... and my rating is 'below average'.

Maybe they figure I'm not going to load up new cards with big balances and pay them interest every month .

Basil_Hume

Likewise, my partner has personal wealth of about £200k - but was recently turned down for a basic credit card by our bank, presumably on account of having no history of paying debt off.