Credit card refused due to association

heartbroken

Hello

My husband has now been discharged for 18 months and is working on building up his rating.

My own rating is very good, and needed to apply for a new balance transfer card but this has been refused (MBNA) due to my association with my husband. :mad:

Can I do anything about this? We have a joint mortgage so won't be able to disassociate I imagine.

Will it be the same with every lender? Should I call them first before applying, being refused and hurting my credit rating.

Thanks in advance

HB
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withabix

I think you will be doing without a new balance transfer card, to be honest, as you cannot delete the financial association.

Your best way forward is probably to pay down the debt on the existing card as fast as you can.

Ineedaname

I agree, you've seen where debt can end up so now is the time to clear as much as possible. I appreciate that may be what you were trying to do by going for balance transfer to a lower interest rate. Maybe approach your bank to see about a loan to pay everything off, or just cut the card up and focus on repayments.

bankrubber

heartbroken wrote: »

Will it be the same with every lender? Should I call them first before applying, being refused and hurting my credit rating.

Thanks in advance

HB
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It could be different with the other banks. I applied for a couple of 0% interest on balance credit cards last year and MBNA was the only one that refused me. They did not tell me why, and the ones that accepted me did so after I was first refused by MBNA.

Just my experience with them, maybe they have stricter criteria than most? Hope it helps.

dojoman

Any credit checks now, will unfortunately associate you with your husband, there is not a lot you can actually do about it.

now

MBNA are not nice to deal with, I would not bother and try as the others say pay off the debt, not easy I know but borrowing is not the solution ( I know as I have been there and got the scars to prove it)

heartbroken

Thanks for your replies

Yep, I do know where debt gets you and will be trying to pay this off asap. It's not a huge amount but Lloyds wrote to me to say that my current interest rate is going up to nearly 25% :eek: and that if I didn't like it I could close my account...nice. So obviously I thought I would shop around for a better deal.

I have now had a chat to Lloyds to see if they will decrease the rate and they have agreed not to bump it up (still not on a great rate but much better than the proposed 25%). I still put a complaint in about the letter and it's wording...I've had a cc with them for 15 years...seems loyalty isn't rewarded any more

As a couple of you have said MBNA are strict, I might try to sound out some other companies on the phone.

Many thanks for your help, much appreciated.

HB
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Ineedaname

That will have been a standard letter sent out to thousands of their customers, regardless of loyalty. The onus is on the customer to ring up and threaten to go elsewhere, often that works as in your case and the rate either remains as it was or sometimes can go down a bit.

I would wait a few months before applying anywhere else as they will see a recent check on your account and may refuse you on the basis you might already have additional credit.