Applying for a Halifax Reward account with a old AP marker on credit report ?

Ryan101

One of my friends wants to switch from Barclays to the Halifax for the £100 switching offer and get the £5 reward each month, but having helped him look through his credit report online he had an ‘ARRANGMENT’on one of his old accounts (Not a bank or credit card account), the account itself has not dropped off yet and is marked as settled a good few years ago and this is the only blemish on an other wise excellent report.

I have searched as much as I can for him and found out that some say its as bad as a default, others say it showed he tackled the problem rather than just not pay and default, which apparently looks better. The only other thing as that on examples I have found the AP marker is red on all the months, but on his it is grey, and does not show as any missed payments, and actually shows as being up to date and then settled. On Experian it shows as either 0 or U ?.

I have told him to apply as its only a current account and see what happens, as since the arrangement to pay was finished in 2008 he has had a Credit Card, two mobile phone contracts (Both high end phones too like the Iphone 4s) and a Lloyds full current account (At the time with cheque book and £250 cheque card).

He of course does not want to apply as he thinks because of this it will decline.

Any thoughts anyone ?.

BugsyBrowne

Whatever way you look at it an AP marker on someone's file settled or not looks like someone who's struggled financially in the past therefore being a high risk.

Not sure if Halifax gives current accounts to people with adverse on their files or not.

Only being a bank account he might be lucky or he may be offered a basic account instead but might be worth having a punt.

pmduk

I suspect that Lloyds giving him a full account is a good sign

jen245

I have an old AP marker on my credit files (from 2009, account settled now), and have successfully applied for 5 full current accounts (3 with overdrafts) and 3 credit cards with 4-5k limits over the last 2 years, and one of my current accounts is a Halifax Reward account, so I dont think he'll have any problems

MoneySaverLog

As others have said it wont affect you getting a current account with Halifax.

wiseshark

jen245 wrote: »

I have an old AP marker on my credit files (from 2009, account settled now), and have successfully applied for 5 full current accounts (3 with overdrafts) and 3 credit cards


Why do you need 5 current accounts? I recall reading here 6 months ago, another very regular poster admitted they had 13 current accounts.
I find that number to be quite astonishing. What are they all for? While I accept it's always useful to have a 'parachute' account and maybe people want to take advantage of other banks products, what is the purpose of having more than a few. Have I missed something? Please tell me, I'm dumbfounded!!!:D

MoneySaverLog

For the benefits mostly. First Direct have a 8% regular saver, HSBC had a 6% regular saver, Nationwide have a host of flex-clusives available to customers depositing £750 a month, Lloyds TSB pay 4% interest on balances between 5-6k, but you can have multiples. Halifax pay you £5 a month, A certain Spanish bank I wont name gives you cash back on your spending, and 3% on balances up to 20K. The list goes on.

wiseshark

Must be a right pain having to transfer each month, what I call a ' transfer fund 'of say £1000 in and out of each account every few days. Well I wont knock it, if it brings in a few extra quid each month or saves money. The main problem I see with having all these current accounts is that it must surely lower ones credit score.

jen245

wiseshark wrote: »

jen245 wrote: »

I have an old AP marker on my credit files (from 2009, account settled now), and have successfully applied for 5 full current accounts (3 with overdrafts) and 3 credit cards


Why do you need 5 current accounts? I recall reading here 6 months ago, another very regular poster admitted they had 13 current accounts.
I find that number to be quite astonishing. What are they all for? While I accept it's always useful to have a 'parachute' account and maybe people want to take advantage of other banks products, what is the purpose of having more than a few. Have I missed something? Please tell me, I'm dumbfounded!!!:D

The first one was Natwest, who I moved my main account to after the balls up that Santander made of the A&L takeover, then the Halifax Reward account, for the free fivers every month, and also for their Clarity Rewards credit card, then Santander, to get the £100 switch incentive, and the quidco cash back, and Citibank, for their US dollar account, as the rates for transferring pounds to dollars was excellent, but then they started charging for it, and I couldnt be bothered to jump through their hoops to keep it free, so I have now closed the Citi account and the Santander account.
I also have a Barclays current account, which is used as a spending account, and also because they tend to have good ISA accounts for existing customers, so I only have 3 accounts now, although I'm considering opening a Santander Everyday account, to get a little bit more quidco cashback

guesswho2000

wiseshark wrote: »

The main problem I see with having all these current accounts is that it must surely lower ones credit score.

Doesn't seem to be affecting me, I've got five current accounts and I've taken out four credit cards and a mortgage in the last eight months with no issues.

jen245

wiseshark wrote: »

Must be a right pain having to transfer each month, what I call a ' transfer fund 'of say £1000 in and out of each account every few days. Well I wont knock it, if it brings in a few extra quid each month or saves money. The main problem I see with having all these current accounts is that it must surely lower ones credit score.

It hasn't affected me at all, as above. And I only leave the £1000 in my Reward account for a few seconds then transfer it straight back out again. In the time I've had that account I've made nearly £500 for nothing as the credit card gives £5 cashback if you spend more than £300 per month which I do anyway. The Santander account I only had for 6 months, and made just over £200 out of it, and there are lots of people on here who have made a lot more than that, so there is money to be made from bank accounts, every little helps