Credit Card if your unemployed?

forgotmyname

This was mentioned last night and thought the answers would be here somewhere. Trawled a few pages in and found nothing.

Tried a search which crashed and failed.

Anyway. Seems when she applied for car insurance, They asked whether she had a credit card, No was her reply. The price increased.

They could offer no explanation. No card = higher premium. Specifically asked for a credit card not a debit or prepaid card.

Actually paid in full by direct debit anyway. So its not a payment issue.

Can she get a credit card whilst unemployed? Even if its £20 she said.
She did have money issues 2006/2007. Hence the cards all going.
All paid up and credit file almost clear.

No more credit she says. But paying extra for not having a card is silly.

Any help?

Thanks.

MrSilk

forgotmyname wrote: »

This was mentioned last night and thought the answers would be here somewhere. Trawled a few pages in and found nothing.

Tried a search which crashed and failed.

Anyway. Seems when she applied for car insurance, They asked whether she had a credit card, No was her reply. The price increased.

They could offer no explanation. No card = higher premium. Specifically asked for a credit card not a debit or prepaid card.

Actually paid in full by direct debit anyway. So its not a payment issue.

Can she get a credit card whilst unemployed? Even if its £20 she said.
She did have money issues 2006/2007. Hence the cards all going.
All paid up and credit file almost clear.

No more credit she says. But paying extra for not having a card is silly.

Any help?

Thanks.

Simple answer. No.

Being unemployed will rule out any credit card, the lowest limit sub-prime lenders give is around £150, and not £20.

When applying for any credit product, most cards to require you to earn a minimum salary to even be considered.

Past defaults and CCJ's (if any) would make is extremely hard to obtain any kind of credit.

The Capital One Secured Card does have the option to select unemployed however, at worst; they would require a £200 upfront payment to secure the card.

chattychappy

Perhaps there is a correlation between people not having credit cards and making fraudulent claims, or simply having a greater propensity to claim.

James_Lahey

I've applied and been accepted for cards whilst unemployed (in fact my first card issued through my bank had a limit of £4,000 despite me being a lone parent on income support at the time.)

I'd imagine it'd depend a lot on credit history, there are some subprime card issuers mentioned on this board - fine as long as you are careful to clear full balance every month and don't fall foul of the horrible APR's.

chattychappy

MrSilk wrote: »

Being unemployed will rule out any credit card, the lowest limit sub-prime lenders give is around £150, and not £20.

Yeah.. just wouldn't be viable to issue cards and deal with all the compliance issues/fraud risks for the sake of what they could make on giving £20 of credit.

MrSilk

chattychappy wrote: »

Yeah.. just wouldn't be viable to issue cards and deal with all the compliance issues/fraud risks for the sake of what they could make on giving £20 of credit.

if she will be using it just to purchase small things, and will strictly pay it off at the end of each month in full, she could try Vanquis

https://www.vanquis.co.uk/apply/

James_Lahey

£31.31 cashback if applying for a vanquis card-

http://www.topcashback.co.uk/vanquis_credit_card/

MrSilk

James_Lahey wrote: »

£31.31 cashback if applying for a vanquis card-

http://www.topcashback.co.uk/vanquis_credit_card/

Nice find

Ne5555

capital one secured card

viv0147

She could also get a pre-paid credit card you can use it exactly as any other credit card but you can only spend what you have put on the card

MrSilk

Ne5555 wrote: »

capital one secured card

Acceptance is not guaranteed, I'm sure you would still require a wage/salary as it operates just like any other card, to which you can still incur charges.

You only receive the deposit back if/when you close the account, they would however use all or part of the deposit to clear the account if there is a balance outstanding, I'm not sure if this would show on CRA's files though, from looking at their FAQ's I'm given the impression it doesn't; but you never know with these credit card companies