Debt Free - what credit card now?

pink_pirlie

Well today I have paid the last £574 off my remaining credit card (after being £13k in debt April 2010).

This credit card gave a great balance transfer rate, but doesn't really offer any decent additional benefits. This card has about a £5,000 limit. All other cards have been cancelled as they have been paid off.

I have never missed a payment on my cards and also have a mortgage since 2007 always paid.

I was thinking of applying for a Nationwide Select Card as its got over seas benefits and cash back, but I'm not sure whether my debt will have caused problems to my credit rating and therefore should use the one I have for 6 months of putting petrol on and paying off in full to rebuid, or just to apply for the new card and if successful cancel the existing one I have.

At the moment all I want is to be able to buy big items on it for the protection. I have no intention of ever getting into debt again, but am unsure whether I'm really ready to be trusted with not over spending day to day so will continue to pay for that with my debit card. But in the future i hope to feel more confident about that to take more advantage of the cash back offers.

Advice would be welcomed!! Thank you in advance.

lisyloo

Well done.

but I'm not sure whether my debt will have caused problems to my credit rating

If you were paying minimum payment on time and didn't miss payments then that isn't a problem. It's not a sin to borrow.
It's only a problem if you don't make the required (min) payments on time and have late payments, court judgments or defaults.
I would suggest getting your credit reports from Equifax and Experian to check the info if you have not done so already. Don't bother with the scores (they aren't what lenders use just what Experian/Exquifax sell) and don't bother with the free trials - they are a hassle to cancel. I would suggest you pay £2 for the statutory reports (may be a little tricky to find as they promote their more expensive products, but you should be able to find it).

At the moment all I want is to be able to buy big items on it for the protection.

There are other benfits too.
I like cashback and commission free foreign transaction, but you can also get free extended warranties and insurance.
It can be worth putting everything on credit cards to get cashback/rewards.
If you don't want to get into debt then you could set up a monthly DD to pay it in full each month.

If you don't want to do that and just want one for protection then it doesn't matter which one you get. In this case you might want to maximise the interest free days jsut for convenience as it can vary quite a lot between 28-56.

If you've got credit rating issues (which we don't know yet), your own bank is a good place to start because they have internal history on you as well.

[Deleted User]

Well done on clearing 13k in a couple of years. Impressive stuff.

Re getting a new card - although you had significant debt, did you ever miss payments, default, go on an arrangement etc? If not, then your credit rating should still be fairly good, despite carrying a lot of debt in the past.

pink_pirlie

No missed payments, there was an issue with a DD when my paypal account was hacked and they cleared out my account but I sorted this with the bank and I paid straight away and before the next statement was generated and was told this wouldn't show on my account.

I have Noddle and it doesn't show any issues, is it worth getting the £2 as well as this?

Thanks again

XLsior

pink_pirlie wrote: »

I was thinking of applying for a Nationwide Select Card as its got over seas benefits and cash back

on the contrary , you might be MORE credit worthy, and would be quite interesting to most credit card providers. (eg. the amount of interest they think they could make out of you by analysing your past debts.) as long as you always made minimum payments ...

One of the financial organisations i used to work in actually used to favour people who used to carry a balance on their credit cards because of the possibility of cream interest of them. Might just be an idea to get your free credit report/score and callcredit just to see how you fair out.

and remember the select credit card is only available to prime nationwide current account customers - the card also has 12 months free on purchases so could be useful too and after that is from 9.9% APR (typical 12.9%). if you are already a nationwide current account customer they should be able to tell you at the branch whether you are pre approved or like to get one. If you are not a current account customer with nationwide , they can offer you that card from the day you switch your current account