Credit Scores-how Can I Improve Them Quickly??

zcaprd7

I'm guessing the Barclaycard had a low credit limit because it was from the offer from a few months back that got stitched up by them offering low limits.

zcaprd7

aardvark0 wrote:

It's an Alliance & Leicester card which is indeed run by MBNA.

How would I go about talking them into refinancing my debt at a lower interest rate?

Approach one would be to clear the A&L card, and once clear ring up and ask if the will do a balance transfer deal (they will probably levy a charge, hopefully capped at £35/50 - remember to factor this into the deal they offer you).


Approach two would be to ask A&L to lower your limit by say £1000 and then apply for another MBNA affiliated credit card, which should come through at around £1000 limit, or there abouts.

The reason being is that MBNA will let you have a certain credit limit across all cards and you can have around 3/5 MBNA type cards at any one time. Once you get your new card, when you ring up to do the promotional balance transfer you can shift all your credit limit from the old card across to the new one and then use this new limit for your transfer.


It would make sense to clear off the old MBNA card before you do either of these...if you don't have the cash then you could shift the debt to a credit card, even if it has a poor rate, temporarily, in the knowledge it won't be there for long?

krazyk

One question from this thread, it was mentioned (if I read it correctly) that transferring money puts your credit rating down? So balance transferring a lot of money or many times is bad for your credit rating?

K

krazyk

Hi there,

Can anyone help me here?

K

Reaper

krazyk wrote:

One question from this thread, it was mentioned (if I read it correctly) that transferring money puts your credit rating down? So balance transferring a lot of money or many times is bad for your credit rating?

Not sure which post you are referring to, but balance transferring in itself will not harm your credit rating. A side effect of balance transferring may however - some companies prefer you to have a few long term cards rather than constantly switch every 6 months to get the best deal. However even if they look for it I suspect the negative effect is not great and well worth taking a small hit if it means you can get 0% interest on your debts.

Phoebs

aardvark0 wrote:

It's an Alliance & Leicester card which is indeed run by MBNA.

How would I go about talking them into refinancing my debt at a lower interest rate?

Have you spoken to them and asked if the rate currently applicable to your account is the best they can offer?

I did this about 18mths ago and every company (Barclaycard, MBNA, A&L - yeah I know they are MBNA now too, and Egg) all reduced the APR by 2-5%, just from a simple telephone call, no hassling them or anything. However, I tried the same thing with my Lloyds credit card just last week and they weren't having any of it (although they did suggest balance transfering off the card, then bt back on to the card as the bt rate is significantly lower than the purchase rate and its for the life of the balance transferred)