New Credit Card

Piotrf

Hi All,

I'm fairly new to posting to this forum, although I do follow it relatively often as well as the main website.

I am in a dilema and would like to hear from different member their opinion.

I currently have two CC, one Barclaycard Goldfish which I always pay in full and have built up a good credit record with it. The other is a Virgin that I used for BT which I have been using for stoozing and have 0% rate until December, which I keep paying the minimum plus a small extra few quid to avoid flagging a minimum payment at Experian. I have roughly £3K in debt with this card and the same amount in a separate savings account earning interest.

I am also saving up for a deposit and I reckon that in the 2nd quarter of next year I would have a sizeable deposit and in a position to get a mortgage. I did come to meet my current account bank (Halifax) to see how much I could get and it seems to be more than I need. They also confirmed that I'm a class A type of mortgage client, so I think that I have a very good chance of getting it.

My question is (and please accept my apologies for this long thread), if I do a new BT from the virgin card to an Halifax BT for 20/22 months, if that could be causing some damage to my credit history record? And also, my Barclaycard Goldfish is pretty bad in terms of rewards (although their customer service is good from my experience), I was thinking of applying for the Amex Nectar (£25 worth of nectar points plus what it seems to be twice as much as the Goldfish rewards), but I'm a bit reluctant to close my Barclaycard account as I've been building up my record mainly with them.

Sorry once again for the long post.

I look forward to hearing other forumites.

Thanks,
P

callum9999

I don't know too much about mortgages so although I'd suspect that will be alright as you don't really seem to be changing your amount of debt - you're just shifting it to another card - I don't really want to give a definitive answer on it!

But with regards to getting rid of the Barclaycard and getting a Nectar card, if you're going to get a bonus and 2x rewards you should definitely do it. Building up a record with one provider is all well and good, but if it's not going to financially benefit you, what exactly would the point be!

Eonel

Running a balance on a credit card for stoozing obviously does show on your credit record as outstanding debt. Mortgage lenders may perceive this as a negative.

It has been many years since I last remortgaged, but i had to explain my credit card balances to the mortgage company as stoozed. They accepted this.

Things are tougher these days. If you want to absolutely maximise your mortgage chances then you should wind-up your stooze a couple of months before your mortgage application.

But my gut instinct is at with only 3k debt you should be Ok to keep the balance open and explain it if asked.

ssmith.73

I did something similar, I had a chunk of deposit and actually used some of my stooze fund to increase deposit from 10 to 15%.

My mortgage application was also with Halifax and they have no issue with card balances.

Since applying the sale fell through and I kept the application open whilst finding another property. During this time my 0% ran out and I transferred the balance to a new 0% card.

I have now found another property and we are proceeding. Halifax did another credit check to finalise the application which passed:T. Although my available credit changed, the amount owing did not as it just moved providers.

I would not suggest this would apply in all cases, but worked for me.

gaztruman

I have just got rid of a £800 loan with RBS by doing a money transfer from a Virgin 16 month credit card.

Its going to save me plenty on the interest.

Only downside is if you are not paying the exact minimum payment or it off in full. You have to remember to pay what you want each month or get charged.

Piotrf

Thanks to all.

So if I go ahead with keeping the Credit Card balance and move it to a new card on 0% balance transfer, is that a reasoble assumption to exclude any of the best buys barclaycard and MBNA cards? As I currently hold one of each - barclaycard being paid in full and Virgin-MBNA-issued 0% balance to be transferred.
That would leave Halifax (the same provider of my Current Account and the highly likely future mortgage provider), Natwest/RBS or Nationwide maybe? How hard is it to get any of these? I did apply for a Halifax card 18 months ago but got rejected, possibly due to not having much credit history (applied for it at the same time I opened my current account), so I can assume with me banking with them for all this time it would have improved my chances now?
Thanks in advance.

Piotrf

callum9999 wrote: »

But with regards to getting rid of the Barclaycard and getting a Nectar card, if you're going to get a bonus and 2x rewards you should definitely do it. Building up a record with one provider is all well and good, but if it's not going to financially benefit you, what exactly would the point be!

I guess there's no harm in keeping the barclaycard as backup card and using it to pay for the odd lunch. By deleting a credit card it also deletes all the credit history you've build up with them, if I'm correct.

CLAPTON

the benifits you will gain over the next few months from stoozing £3,000 are £xx ?

and the benefits you will gain from nectar rewards over the next few months?


the risk of not getting the mortgage you want is ????


a no brainer to me

Piotrf

CLAPTON wrote: »

a no brainer to me

I don't think of it as a complete "no brainer".

The Nectar Amex for the benefits instead of the Barclaycard is a now brainer on is own, but it's was the timing of making the application that I trying draw my attention to. Specially if I'm to go for a new BT card as well.

CLAPTON

Piotrf wrote: »

I don't think of it as a complete "no brainer".

The Nectar Amex for the benefits instead of the Barclaycard is a now brainer on is own, but it's was the timing of making the application that I trying draw my attention to. Specially if I'm to go for a new BT card as well.

For the avoidance of doubt:

It was the timing I ws referring to:

In my view, madness to risk a good mortgage deal which may cost you thousands of pounds, for the modest benefits of getting the CCs now rather than wait until after you have purchased the property

Piotrf

CLAPTON wrote: »

In my view, madness to risk a good mortgage deal which may cost you thousands of pounds, for the modest benefits of getting the CCs now rather than wait until after you have purchased the property

Point taken