How do I get a Switch card?

mrviews

Hello guys and apologies in advance if i'm posting in the wrong room

I'm 23 years old and have been with my bank (Halifax) since 2001 when I started working. Over the last 6 years I have had continous monthly wages go into that account (a minimum of £1000 a month) as well as about £10,000 in other transactions over the years (selling my car etc). I currently have a standard current account with a Visa Electron. My only problem is that Halifax will not let me upgrade my account to a Switch card and I dont understand why?

I have tried upgrading my account on 4 seperate occaisions (3 times in my home branch and once online) and on all 4 occaisions I have been denied. I have never been given a reason apart from the bog standard "as a result of searching your credit file we are unable to...." . My credit history isn't great but I ordered my credit file from Experian and I only have 2 defaults on my account and they are for a reletivley small amounts with one of them showing as settled and paid in full.

All I want is a Switch card, not even an overdraft facility....does anyone have any ideas how I can get Halifax to do this for me?

Thanks

drawle

Halifax don't issue switch cards anymore, they only do either visa elctron which is what you say you have and visa debit cards.
I had electron with them and they wouldnt upgrade me, the only way I got is was because when I reclamed my charges I asked them along with this to issue me with a visa debit card also. You can't normally "make them" give you one as its a computer that decides but as I said it was one of the conditions in my claim.

Phoenix79_2

mrviews wrote:

I currently have a standard current account with a Visa Electron. My only problem is that Halifax will not let me upgrade my account to a Switch card and I dont understand why?

&

mrviews wrote:

......but I ordered my credit file from Experian and I only have 2 defaults on my account and they are for a reletivley small amounts with one of them showing as settled and paid in full.

All I want is a Switch card, not even an overdraft facility....does anyone have any ideas how I can get Halifax to do this for me?

Therin lies the answer. Unfortunately for you....'only 2 defaults' is 2 defaults too many! Halifax will not upgrade you and your only alternative is to try another bank (Citibank seem to offer visa debit cards to people with poor credit). Due to your history, your bank deem you untrustworthy. A visa debit card can be a cheque guarantee card....so you could write cheques out (up to a certain amount) and your bank would have to honour them even if you didn't have funds for it. They are not prepared to take this risk with you due to past events on your credit file.

huggychair

mrviews wrote:

All I want is a Switch card, not even an overdraft facility....does anyone have any ideas how I can get Halifax to do this for me?
Thanks

As drawle points out they don't issue Switch cards anymore, but Visa debit cards on the full current account. <anyway> Switch has changed its name to Maestro.

If you still want one, you could do worse than apply for a Yorkie Bank cashminder account as suggested towards the end of this thread:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=319736&page=8
The downside versus the account you have now is no chequebook. But with online banking who needs it?

Of course you'd have to consider whether ir not it's worth the hassle of changing over all of your standing orders/wages etc.

If it's just the card 'brand' your after ie 'Maestro', then you may be better off sticking with the account you have now and trying to improve your credit score to upgrade to a Visa debit (universaly accepted) Visa Electron seems to be more widely accepted than Maestro now anyway. Once again it depends on your needs. Read the following 'debate' thread about debit cards in full:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=375527

<Edit> Also,after reading recent posts citibank have seemingly tightend up their acceptance policy of late (visa debit) for those peeps with bad credit files. Hope this is of help.

regards,

Dan
:money: :A

newfoundglory

Phoenix79 wrote:

A visa debit card can be a cheque guarantee card....so you could write cheques out (up to a certain amount) and your bank would have to honour them even if you didn't have funds for it. They are not prepared to take this risk with you due to past events on your credit file.

Exactly. Standard halifax visa debit cards guarantee payment of your cheques up to £100 each. With a book of 30 cheques, thats a potential £3000 worth of credit.

s1h

I disagree with Huggychair ,surely Maestro is more recognised and widely accepted than Visa Electron

regularsaver1

Halifax are approving some people without cheque g'tee facility. They have lowered their credit scoring by this.

They will look at the conduct of your account. Looking for reg credits, any charges ect. any other accounts with them. having a savings account for a while helps, as do mortgage customers

They will look if you are on the electoral roll, how long been at address and how long in job.

Sometimes its catch 22 situation - your card cash you have now does not appear on your credit file as it is a basic account. If you don't have any credit anywhere, sometimes they won;'t run the rick as there is nothing to assess

in this situation its mainly down to your existing profile

Kilty_2

s1h wrote:

I disagree with Huggychair ,surely Maestro is more recognised and widely accepted than Visa Electron

In this country, certainly.

Abroad, most certainly not.

PaulW922

As mentioned above the Yorkshire Bank (which is actually a trading name of Clydesdale Bank these days and they offer the same account) has a Readycash account with a full Maestro card on it. An alternative is to visit a scheme such as https://www.extremecred.com which will provide a prepaid Maestro card (full chip and pin). This is available to everyone and can be topped up at the Post office and via Paypoint. There is however an £8-95 annual fee and a small top up fee each time (no usage fee though). So it isn't free but you are almost guaranteed to get one.

huggychair

s1h wrote:

I disagree with Huggychair ,surely Maestro is more recognised and widely accepted than Visa Electron

Yes! up until a year ago; When the banking industry moved to chip n pin (after shunning fish and cushion.. such a promising act!! LOL:rotfl:) alot of payment systems were converged meaning the 'mikey mouse' solo card (a poor or 16+ persons version of Maestro) works in exactly the same way as its brother and the vast majority of 'tills/terminals' as visa electron does. (Instant electronic varification of funds)

With Maestro v Solo, a bank CAN but may not offer a cheque guarentee facility with a Maestro but may NOT with solo (The Yorkshire Bank a/c I refered to above has no such potential)

With Visa (debit<not credit>) v visa electron it's 'practically' as the above,
(remember allot of payment systems have converged UK/Europe wise)

Buying things on the internet is a different matter! Many payment systems are US based so 'prefer' visa right now. Having said that tesco.com still 'shuns' visa electron cards whilst accepting Maestro/Solo ones (both available to 16+)

Come to think of it, maybe this thread is just an elaborate plot for a 15 year old to buy alcohol via tesco home delivery! (LOL)
(or maybe just a move by tesco towards (British based) world domination!! )
(you will be converged!!...every little helps!;) )

<anyway>

Hope this helps some peeps!,

Dan

:cool: :A

Kilty_2

huggychair wrote:

solo card (a poor or 16+ persons version of Maestro)

Solo is being slowly phased out. I had Maestro sent to me from Clydesdale Bank when I was 15. Binned the account a few months later but that's another story.

Lloyds TSB now provide Visa Debit to people 16+. It seems that it's now easier to get a full debit card (minus cheque guarantee) if you are under 18 than if you are over 18 with dodgy credit or low earnings.......

To be honest, Visa Electron isn't quite as bad as it's made out to be and most places do accept it. If you need a full debit card though, Yorkshire/Clydesdale Bank is probably your best bet but I would not recommend them to anyone.