Refused a 0% balance credit card

DemonKittyKat

Hi,

I was reading up about the best 0% balance transfer credit cards and as I have quite a high debt on one (£7,800) which I am paying £160 in just interest alone each month figured I would get it transfered over so I can really hammer this debt down!

I applied for the BarclayCard Platinum one - 0% for 20 months and was surprised when I was turned down, as I have had 0% balance cards before!

I saw they checked with Experian so I immedietly logged onto to see my report and even paid £5 to see what my credit score was and it is 999 (Excellent) so have no idea why I was refused over than that I have a few credit agreements and the balance is high on some of them.

Do you think its worth phoning them up once they send the refusal letter out as I am thinking they may have made a mistake, I have never been turned down before.
I put my actual salary down which is £32500. Could that be the problem?

Regards,

DemonKittyKat

Jib111

Paying £5 to check your credit score is useless, as every lender has there own way of assessing you.

Leave it for a couple of months then maybe apply for the Tesco Credit Card.

Tixy

The credit score doesn't take into account everything they will consider and its now much harder to get 0% cards than it used to be.

What is the limit on your existing card? any other debts/credit accounts?
Do you have an overdraft? do you use it every month?
Do you pay the minimum or more than the minimum to your current card each month?

You've said your debts are quite high on some on your accounts. What are your total debts? generally people start to struggle to get new credit if their debts or total available credit (used & unused) is more than 50% of their income.

DemonKittyKat

The credit score doesn't take into account everything they will consider and its now much harder to get 0% cards than it used to be.

What is the limit on your existing card? any other debts/credit accounts?
Do you have an overdraft? do you use it every month?
Do you pay the minimum or more than the minimum to your current card each month?

You've said your debts are quite high on some on your accounts. What are your total debts? generally people start to struggle to get new credit if their debts or total available credit (used & unused) is more than 50% of their income.



My debt on that one credit card is £7,800. I am at the moment just paying the minimum which is £260 a month (hence why I want a 0% balance card so I can pay more off quicker)

4 years ago I took out a £12,000 loan for house renovations, I pay £220 a month on that, but that will be cleared in 2 years time.

I have another credit card which is roughly £2,000 for which again I pay the minimum of £50 a month on it.

I am a homeower. My mortgage is £570 a month

I had to get an overdraft due to some !!!! up at work a few months ago - £1,500.

What do you think?

Tixy

I think you'll struggle to get any new credit - your debt looks to be just over half your salary, and so any new potential lenders will worry that you cannot afford the repayments on your existing debts and their new credit account on top. (I know you want to use it for a BT not to increase debt but the lenders don't know that and cannot be certain you wouldn't run up the cleared card again).

Whats the APR on the main card? and on the second card? - if the second card is a lower apr and has a credit limit higher than the balance you could perhaps slow stooze some debt from main card to second card. Thats putting your everyday spending such as groceries, petrol etc on the cheaper card instead of out your current account and then using the money not used in the current account to pay off the more expensive card.

You could also try calling the card provider of the main card and seeing if they will consider reducing the APR a little. Its a little bit of a longshot but it has worked for some people on here.
One thing to watch out for is if they decline they might then try to increase the APR in a couple of months or so - you can opt-out of any such rise but it would mean you could no longer use the card.

DemonKittyKat

Thanks.
I am also paying redundancy and sickness protection on that card too so I may cancel that as I need to reduce that debt.

I am not sure of what the APR is on either cards. Originally the one card was a 0% balance transfer and was paying that off nicely until I was made recundant last year and relied on my card for a bit
until I found work. Will try and find the APRs on them.
As it stands I am not using any of the cards now, am just paying them off, I don't even know the pin numbers now