Likelihood of being accepted for main stream card

fishty

Hi All,
I have been mooching around for some time now and had many great tips from this site.
Basically, I have been repairing my credit file for the last few years and all payments are up to date and have not missed a single payment since early 2008. My file with Experian looks great. My file with Equifax not so great, as is still lists the missed payments and two ‘arrangements to pay’ from 2007.
I have a 10K loan which I’ve had for 5 years and I will be paying the very last payment in 4 days (3rd Feb) can’t come soon enough . This loan was originally with Amber and like others on here I got sold down the river by them and ended up being sold off to Cabot when Amber decided unsecured loans were no longer a viable business for them. None the less, my file with Cabot is clean (I did have to ask them to remove a ‘special instruction indicator’ on my CF – which they did - eventually).
Anyway, to the point, my file shows the following: I have a search from when was turned down in May 2010 by MBNA (due to Cabots special instruction before I had them remove it). I have a Citi card (now Opus) Balance £260 limit £1600. NatWest MasterCard Balance £1990 limit £2100. The master card is the only fly in the ointment as far as I can see, due to being so close to the limit. As I have had negative credit files in the past, I am terrified of upsetting the apple cart by having more declined searches. I’m mid 30’s, own home, 30K income, Married & Kids (if that makes a difference).
I am also happy to wait until the loan shows settled – if that helps. Other than that listed above the only other accounts are usual ones like mortgage, mobiles, catalogue (£350-balance £1000-limit).
Sorry to go into detail but I am looking for advice from all those who are much better than I about understanding credit card illegibility and whom to apply for. I am aiming for Tesco card as we do use Club card points and like the idea of 0% for 13months. As far as I am aware they only use Experian for CR Check.
Thank you very much in advance for any input you can give.

izools

I think you stand a very good chance of approval of this:

http://www.your-application.co.uk/netfinancecertegymicrosite/creation/Welcome.aspx?

They approved my mother for a 2K limit despite having a Debt to Income ratio of 50% and limit to income ratio of 110% at the time of application.

She also had a Barlaycard account that had been in an arrangement to pay for seven years and STILL WAS when she applied.

Given your circumstances I reckon you're a shoe in unless they've increased their criteria massively.

Good luck! Do let us know how you get on :beer:

fishty

Thanks for the reply and link izools, I've had a look and its definetly worth bearing in mind. Other than maybe a slightly longer intrest free BT, the Tesco card still looks the more attractive to me. It's a right head ache wondering what to do but I do value your reply. :beer:

izools

I would apply for both.

First of all, Tesco are quite strict, so don't worry if you are knocked back.

Applying for both won't have a detrimental effect on your credit score. I'll tell you why.

If, for example, you applied for a Capital One card, they would perform a credit search on Equifax AND Experian.

However Tesco are only likely to search Experian
and Creation are only going to search Equifax

This means you will still only have one "footprint" (in effect) after applying for both the tesco and creation card.

If tesco say you've been approved, great you can cancel Creation. If not, then you still have a chance with Creation.

If however creation also turn you down wait another six months before re-applying to them as they will want to see a bigger gap between the date of your last missed payment and the present date.

Good luck! :beer:

fishty

I am curious now. The reason I wanted to avoid Equifax is purely down to the fact they keep such a long repayment record as oppsed to Experians 12 months. How far back are CC companies interested in looking? Also as I mentioned when my loan shows settled within the next month, would this improve my rating and improve my chances of the Tesco card?

izools

They are only interested in the last three years normally. And the weight of missed payments on closed accounts is much less than those on active accounts.

You will stand a better chance when your loan shows as settled yes, so indeed worth waiting six weeks from the settlement date for that to reflect on your credit reports.

Best of luck! :beer:

fishty

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
I can't believe it!!! I've just checked my file online with equifax to check my last missed payment - feb 2008. Only to find Cabot are up to their underhanded tricks again. Cabot have put a big fat arangement to pay on my equifax file at the same time as having it removed from the experian file - what the hell are they playing at???
I'm hoping equifax have misread the letter from cabot to remove the Arrangement to pay as my Cabot account was never on equifax in the first place????
After hours and hours of phone calls and them admitting fault they go and screw me over.
I guess I'll be spending another several hours getting this sorted!!!
Arrrrgggghhhhh I HATE CABOT!!!! :mad:

fishty

Well, I've just filled out the equifax online question section to ask them to double check the information Cabot has sent them as it was apparently a gineric email sent to all 3 CRA's and obviously some monkey read it wrong or Cabot are playing silly bug3rs. :mad::mad::mad:

fishty

Thanks Izools,
Now I've climbed down from the ceiling, as suspected, I will probably wait until my loan shows as settled - and with the risk of mentioning thier name without doing an impression of a tazmanian devil - when Cabot has sorted out my equifax file.

fishty

Hi all,
I have been thinking, as I have had an account with Cabot since Sept 07 and they have only ever reported to experian. Since asking them to amend an error on experian and them agreeing to do so. Is it unlawful of them to then slap an arrangement to pay with equifax considering I only have 4 days before the last payment is made and they have never had my account on equifax? To add to this never missing a payment with them?:(

izools

They are within their rights to report information to all three CRAs.

Correct information, that is. The regulator of the Data Protection Act (the ICO) allows them 30 days to correct the error on your equifax file. If they fail to do this, you would be in your right to pursue a complaint against them via the ICO and / or sue them for defamation of character resultant from breach of data protection (false and inaccurate information on your credit file causing massively reduced credit worthiness).

I suggest putting this in writing to Cabot as well as Equifax. Good luck! :beer:

(Probably won't make you feel better but I find myself having to write to companies and raising notices of disputes to correct data on my credit file two or three times a year... fairly common tbh)