Deck of cards

magician64

Have just got a One account mortgage and I'm looking to stooze some cash to reduce the interest.

I have a decent crdit rating, and won't be applying for a new mortgage soon.

So how many credit cards am I likely to be allowed to hold before I start getting refusals?

grumbler

I have 10. However am using only 2 for purchases and 3 have 0% balance. Am going to close most of others.

However, I never tried to make more than 2-3 applikations within 6 months term.

g002ahe

I applied for 8 within 1 month and got good limits total approx 100% gross salary for stoozing - that was 2 months ago.

My advice would be to just go for it - it worked for me

I also have a one account - are you aware that you can bt from your one account credit card and that every wednesday positive balances on that card get xferred over to your one account, this saves time over going through the egg route.

deemy2004

magician64 wrote:

Have just got a One account mortgage and I'm looking to stooze some cash to reduce the interest.

I have a decent crdit rating, and won't be applying for a new mortgage soon.

So how many credit cards am I likely to be allowed to hold before I start getting refusals?

Its not a question of how many but accumlative credit limit.

I'd say if you pace the applications properly then maybe X2 your salary is achievable in 18 months.

magician64

g002ahe wrote:

II also have a one account - are you aware that you can bt from your one account credit card and that every wednesday positive balances on that card get xferred over to your one account, this saves time over going through the egg route.

Sounds interesting, but not sure I completely undertand. Would appreciate if you could elaborate a little.

deemy2004

g002ahe wrote:

I also have a one account - are you aware that you can bt from your one account credit card and that every wednesday positive balances on that card get xferred over to your one account, this saves time over going through the egg route.

Thats very interesting !

Would be a good backup or substitute to the egg procedure.

Galstonian

g002ahe wrote:

I applied for 8 within 1 month and got good limits total approx 100% gross salary for stoozing - that was 2 months ago.

My advice would be to just go for it - it worked for me

I also have a one account - are you aware that you can bt from your one account credit card and that every wednesday positive balances on that card get xferred over to your one account, this saves time over going through the egg route.

This is a great short term strategy but you will find it unsustainable. If the offers expire over (say) a three month period you will need to apply for cards over that short period to maintain the balance. I doubt it can continue, your credit history now has dramtic changes in it.

g002ahe

Galstonian wrote:

This is a great short term strategy but you will find it unsustainable. If the offers expire over (say) a three month period you will need to apply for cards over that short period to maintain the balance. I doubt it can continue, your credit history now has dramtic changes in it.

We'll see, I have a range of 6, 9 and 12 month offers. I think Ill be OK when I need to apply again. Searches only stay active 6 months I think?

magician64 wrote:

Sounds interesting, but not sure I completely undertand. Would appreciate if you could elaborate a little.

normally you would follow the procedure
whatever card -> egg -> one account
but with the one account you can do this in stead
whatever card > one account visa
Then fairly quickly those nice guys at RBOS will transfer for you automatically
one account visa-> One acount
This option is quicker and removes the need to involve egg - which is v handy during anniversary offers.

deemy2004 wrote:

Thats very interesting !

Would be a good backup or substitute to the egg procedure.

You need to have a one account mortgage to do this, you cant have a one account without a mortgage.
But if you have a one account its a better option.

JasonW_2

Experian hold records of searches from the last 12 months.

Galstonian

Equifax hold searches for two years.

Its not just the searches though. You have had an extremely significant change in your credit history and you now have active accounts with a lot more lenders. Both these things will make it harder to get continuing deals. In my experience I think no more than four or five cards spread out over the year is managable. Fewer and you you need high limits, more and you can start running out of people to apply to. More and more lenders are placing stipulations on having multiple cards in different guises. It used to be easy to have MBNA, Virgin and A&L but now it is extremely haphazard, some report success, others do not.

For the credit card side of things the One account is good but you do pay a bit of a premium rate for it. I also find that it makes people inflate the amount being saved - if they offset £100K against it they think they are saving 5.95% on their mortgage (which I suppose in a sense they are) but really the savings should be the difference between what they would pay on a good discount rate with the £100K in a savings account. If you aren't using your cash ISA allowance (which I've also found true for some One Account holders) then the difference can be startling.

Best of luck anyway. The worst that can happen is that you have to pay the money back and you'll still have had free cash for 6 to 12 months.

deemy2004

Galstonian wrote:

Equifax hold searches for two years.

In my experience I think no more than four or five cards spread out over the year is managable. Fewer and you you need high limits, more and you can start running out of people to apply to. More and more lenders are placing stipulations on having multiple cards in different guises. It used to be easy to have MBNA, Virgin and A&L but now it is extremely haphazard, some report success, others do not.

yes, the problem the person will find is even if he does get cards he applies for in say 3-9 months time, the limits will be nothing like what he is getting now. Its far better to get one good limit card then 5 low limit cards.

So it is better to be paitient and pace the applications....