Declined a new credit card with 0% balance transfer!

BarringtonLevyFan

Need help desperately!
I’ve had good credit for over 10 years, and I’ve succeeded in moving my balance to 0% cards, until yesterday! I made the mistake of assuming that I could just move my credit card debt of £9000 on to another 0% card. But I’ve been declined and now I’m stuck with less than a month to figure out what to do next?
I tried to move from Virgin to NatWest and a Santander loan and was declined, they said I already had a lot of credit, I’ve read that having a lot of credit cards (even if they’re at £0) can effect your chances of getting a new card or loan. Is this true?
Should I cancel the cards I have at £0 and try again, do I have enough time and will it be that easy? Why can’t I even get a loan now? I’ve never missed a payment and now my record is flawed because I’ve been declined twice.
What are my options now that I can’t get another card to make use of a 0% balance transfer?
I really don’t want to be hit with not being able to move it and Virgin stiff me with £9000 + interest for 12 months! L

Please advise?! Thank you in advance

immoral_angeluk

This is always the risk of moving around with 0% offers, The empty cards will be adding to your available credit which will no doubt be affecting your score if its high in relation to your income. Now you have 2 searches it will be even harder let alone with the market the way it is currently. It's harder to get credit now regardless of anything else...

Tixy

You could try calling your empty card providers to see if any will do you a promotional rate, they may offer a short 0% period (6ms maybe) or do a fairly low life of balance rate. Then you could transfer the debt back to one of those cards as it won't involve a credit check.

In the meantime though you really need to start thinking about how you are going to make proper inroads into paying this debt, the credit industry had changed and will continue to do so, making it harder and harder to keep shifting debt.

CannyJock

Your record isn't flawed because you've been declined twice. There's no such thing as a "decline" recorded on your credit report.

If you've made a flurry of applications in a short space of time (6 months) then you've cooked your credit report and this can be an obstacle to future applications.

Yes, you should have closed down some of the cards at £0.

Your best bet now is to phone the dormant cards and ask if they have any offers showing on your account. If they say no, ask to speak to someone about closing the account - don't let the front-line CS people close it for you, insist on speaking to someone in customer loyalty.

You might have to use 2 or 3 cards to cover the full £9k.

Closing your accounts won't help you in the short term - it can take up to 2 months for the closed account status to be reported to the CRA's and some companies (MBNA spring to mind from recent personal experience) seem to forget to close it when you've asked them.

Try your existing cards first.

eastanglian1

My mate has basically tried to do the same as you his is around £10000 he has been a card tart for a few years,he tried to transfer his balances over and he was declined twice in one day off mbna and leeds bs credit card..think he said them 2 were 5.9% balance transfer for life..

DGJsaver

Its all coming to an end chaps and chappeses.....

no_more_cards_for_me

DGJsaver wrote: »

Its all coming to an end chaps and chappeses.....

Indeed, and how many people won't have a chair when the music stops!

0% is all very well but eventually - you have to pay any credit facility back!

BarringtonLevyFan

Thanks guys, great advice.
I'm going to try one of my other cards.

Can someone tell me how the transfer for LOB works, or direct me to a thread that does?

How much would the repayments be if i was able to use one that had a say a 5.7% rate for the LOB?
Would this be a better option to a personal loan that had a higher rate?

Thanks again!!!

Tixy

Hi Barrington

If you get a life of balance deal it just means the interest rate will be at that rate until the balance is paid off in full. Your minimum payments will be whatever that card has as its minimum amount (usually 2-3% of the balance).

They have a greater flexibility than a personal loan as you can pay more when you can afford to. The only other thing to consider is that you will have a balance transfer fee (maybe around 3%, which will be a 1 off cost that you wouldn't have with a loan).
But if the LOB rate was lower than a loan it would be my preferred option.

If you want to look at the types of deals your existing empty card providers may give have a look at this thread- http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=33&page=57 (look at the later pages for recent deals).

Only other thing is to consider if your current card and the card you want to do a transfer from are the same banking group this could cause problems.

Rupert_Bear

BarringtonLevyFan wrote: »

Need help desperately!
I’ve had good credit for over 10 years, and I’ve succeeded in moving my balance to 0% cards, until yesterday! I made the mistake of assuming that I could just move my credit card debt of £9000 on to another 0% card. But I’ve been declined and now I’m stuck with less than a month to figure out what to do next?
I tried to move from Virgin to NatWest and a Santander loan and was declined, they said I already had a lot of credit, I’ve read that having a lot of credit cards (even if they’re at £0) can effect your chances of getting a new card or loan. Is this true?
Should I cancel the cards I have at £0 and try again, do I have enough time and will it be that easy? Why can’t I even get a loan now? I’ve never missed a payment and now my record is flawed because I’ve been declined twice.
What are my options now that I can’t get another card to make use of a 0% balance transfer?
I really don’t want to be hit with not being able to move it and Virgin stiff me with £9000 + interest for 12 months! L

Please advise?! Thank you in advance

I am surprised that Virgin have not offered you any promo deals. We have had virgin card for about 4 years and at the moment have about 4 offers available online. The latest one zero percent with 3 percent fee until 25 January 2011.

unidentified

It may be worth taking a brief look at this though, not being judgemental at all - but could this have anything to do what's happened in the current post:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1111981


Maybe the OP could light the shed on some of the above and if any of that has changed? It could be that you're being classed as too high risk?