Accepted for Virgin Money MBNA

Somotayo

Been reading this forum for almost 2 years and and enjoyed it thoroughly. Here is my situation.
Below are the cards I have
Currently have 4 Credit cards
1. Barlcaycard 27.5% APR Credit Limit 750 balance 500 owned since 1999
2. Capital One Classic 34.9% APR Credit Limit 500 balance zero(recently increased) Owned for 18 months
3. vanquis 39.9% APR Credit Limit 500 balance 100 Owned for 6 Months
4. Aqua 35% APR Credit Limit 750 balance 500 Owned for 6 Months
I signed up for capitalone, Vanquis and Aqua because Barclaycard just refused to increase my credit limit, and while I understand and the other three cards are carry large APRs I thought if I managed it well I should be ok. This year I decided i was going to give it a shot with a mainstream credit card.......I applied today for Virgin Money MBNA and was accepted for a very decent credit limit (4500). I am tempted to get rid of Vanquis and Aqua at the very least......and possibly barclaycard (maybe reapply for their platinum card in 6 months). Really want to get away from all the subprime cards. Open to advice from MSE experts:)

thenudeone

Yes -clearing the debts with the highest rate is the way to go, as long as you can continue to meet the minimum repayments on all the others (remember minimum payments may rise around now due to new regulations).

MCGONIS

I agree. Shift everything to VM and close all they other accounts. Your credit rating will go up by quite a bit.

Just one thing. I have a good credit report. I was in Spain recently and came home to a pile of mail. I forgot to send Virgin Money a payment of £25. It got there a day late.

I contacted them and they gave me £6 of the £12 late fee back. They moved me from 0% interest to 4.95% interest.

I phoned again and they gave me the other £6 back. Now their website was still offering me 0% on any new balance transfers so I asked that the decison on 4.95% was looked at again.

They would not budge on this. A third phone call got me a refund of interest of £5 but that any future interest charge will stand.

MBNA see to be tightening up. I know it was my fault, but from past experience they used to accept the first "error" as a one off. Not now. I never sign up to direct debit on the basis I don't need to as I always pay on time. I have now shifted the debt away and signed up to direct debit - just in case.

Hope that helps a bit.

BadBoyBargain

I agree that extreme caution with missed payments with Virgin Money needs to be avoided at all costs. My wife transferred to Virgin Money with a relatively small balance of approx £1300 to take advantage of the 18months interest free on balances. She made the mistake of missing the first payment was charged the penalty, the interest and lost the 0% interest. Having spoken to some extremely immature and unhelpful people at Virgin on a number of occassions - they refused to do anything and forced the move to another card. The Tesco card on the other hand did not charge interest or lose the balance free period - something which maybe catch my wife out when transferring. So if putting all your 'easter eggs' into one basket make sure you go with a good card or at least make sure you have a direct debit set up to avoid dealing with the unhelpful Virgin Money staff....:easter_os

Somotayo

I have only had my vanquis and Aqua Credit cards for 7 months.......Since I have now received my Virgin Money I desperately want to close those two accounts at the very least. Is there anything negative about having a credit card account for less than a year? I believe I have made my way to the mainstream credit card ladder and should not hang on to the subprime ones.