Refused card, do I have too many?

swizzlebabe

I applied for a virgen card online and have just got a letter saying I have been refused. This is the first time this has happen.
I have got about 6 cards is this the problem?

Paying off on 0 0/0 bal transfer on 2 and use 2 cards I`ve had for years for other things. Wanted to stretch money out a bit so I could pay it all off and get down to nil bal on all cards.

Have 2 or 3 cards which have been paid off and I have cut them up, do I
need to cancel them?

I want to get the nationwide card as going on a long overseas trip. how long do you suggest I wait before applying for it?

Thanks

Reaper

Cutting up cards is not enough, you certainly need to cancel them. When deciding whether to give you credit one factor is how much credit you have available already. So if you never intend using them again get them canceled.

As to why you might have been refused there are lots of possible reasons. eg you already have various other cards run by MBNA (as is Virgin).

You can try asking them, they might give you a clue. Or get your credit reference reports from the CRAs.

You might find Martin's article on credit rating a useful read.

Galstonian

The best way to find out why you were refused is to ask. They will probably make it sound like they didn't refuse you it was the "credit check" that failed which is bending the truth a little. A credit check may well have been carried out using Experian or Equifax and it may well have failed but the fact of it is that Virgin (or MBNA) set the parameters used for the credit check so they will know why it failed.

I find it best to have a copy of my credit report in front of me whenever I am questioning a decision like this so that when they say "it wasn't us it was Experian" I can reply with "well, I have my file from them in front of me now and I can't see anything on it that would cause a rejection, can you be more specific?"

It doesn't always work but if it doesn't then a written request may do better.

Once you know the reason then you move on to appealing against their decision.

Gotabiscuit

Reaper wrote:

As to why you might have been refused there are lots of possible reasons. eg you already have various other cards run by MBNA (as is Virgin).

I would say that this is a very likely reason - check to see if you've already got a card run by MBNA as they're behind many cards (eg Abbey, A&L).

MBNA used to allow you to have more than one of their cards but they've become much stricter of late. I had one of their platinum cards, cancelled it at the end of the 0%, applied for an Abbey card and was refused.