In a Bit Of A Pickle

bowlingo

Hi All,
Ive got a Halifax 1 and a Barclaycard and both there 0% periods are about to expire. I applied for a Sainsburys 12month 0% for spending card 2 1/2 weeks ago and also for a Virgin card so I can transfer my £2000.00 debt from the Barclaycard onto the Virgin card (ive managed to clear the Halifax 1 in time). I received the Sainsburys agreement last week I signed it and gave them a ring to see what my limit was likely to be and I was told it will be £3600.00 which isnt to bad. I then waited 2 days for the Virgin agreement to come through without luck so I gave Virgin a ring and was told id been knocked back because I have an Abbey card that I have never used of which I applied for back in March of last year this Abbey card is owned by MBNA and that was there reason for the rejection which I find a little harsh seeing as ive never spent a penny on it. Im wondering if I cancel the Abbey card and apply for another MBNA card in the future what the odds will be of me getting one. Please can someone also advise me which would be a good card to now go for thats for balance transfers (£2000 from my Barclaycard) with no transfer fee charge and also thats not owned by MBNA I reckon ive got one week to apply for the card on the basis ill recieve it in 3 weeks upon applying if I go over this im going to get hammered by Barclaycard.

Thanks in advance

Alex

Caped_Avenger

I can't fault egg (so far...). I phoned abbey on Monday 7th March to apply for a card to pay off my fd gold card. They took some details, and said they'd send a form. After thinking about it through, i applied for an egg card online on Thursday 10th. I got an instant decision on my limit, my credit agreement was with me by Saturday 12th, returned Monday 14th, the card arrived on either Friday 18th or Saturday 19th (the same day the abbey application form finally arrived), and the balance transfer was in my current account on Monday 21st! Which meant my credit card was effectively paid off only 11 days after my initial application! Quality!

loan8r

I have to agree with Caped Avenger egg are very fast to deal with as opposed to the MBNA cards which are very slow ( my virgin card took almost seven weeks to process despite getting an instant online acceptance ).
Also it seems to be the accepted wisdom that with a few exceptions you should cancel any credit card that you are not using / intending to use in order to make your avaliable credit higher, also after a while usualy 6-12 months depending on the card, you become a "new" customer again and can re apply for the 0% offers
HTH

Cheers, M.

bowlingo

Hi,
Thanks for your replys.

In the past ive had Egg, Abbey, Halifax Platinum and Marbles all of which are still live but I never use them now the 0%'s have expired. Im currently using a Barclaycard and a Halifax One card of which the 0% periods run out in 5 weeks on both of them. What I think ill do is phone up and cancel the 4 old ones next week. As in my original post ive been accepted for a Sainsburys card but got knocked back from a Virgin card due to still having the Abbey card which is owned by MBNA I never realised that due to me having 6 live cards all with various limits on these effects the ammount of limits I get given on new cards I thought the more cards you have the limits would be better for some reason but as I think about it it makes sense because if ive got 4 cards all with £4000 limits on them that im never going to use this means ive already got £16000. So if I cancel the original 4 cards that I own and havent used or intent to use in the best part of a year how long do you think I will have to wait in order to get higher credit limits and apply for MBNA cards etc?

Also im wondering what card I can apply for that will arrive within 5 weeks which is good for a £2000.00 balance transfer, with a 0% period 6,9 or 12 months, with no balance transfer fee, isnt owned by MBNA and isnt one of the above cards that I currently own I got knocked back on a Virgin card last week and was told that it was due to me owning the still live Abbey card of which is owned by MBNA.

I have a very good credit rating and have never defaulted on a minimum payment or any kind of repayment.

Thanks in advance

Alex

smartsaver

Hi Alex

I would ring Virgin and ask if you can transfer the credit limit from the Abbey card to a Virgin card. I have done this in the past between MBNA and Abbey. It's worth a try.

I agree that EGG is a good card to have and fast to be processed. I would be careful about applying for too many cards as they will show up on your credit record and you may be rejected.

I'd call Virgin first and see what they say.

Good luck

Chadsman

You could try ringing their customer loyalty department 0800 7831116 (weekdays 9-5) saying you want to close your account because you are applying for another CC but dont tell them it is another MBNA card. They MIGHT offer you a 0% deal for 6 or even 9 months.