How to get the biggest limit?

izools

Just wanted to see what other people think. I wanted to get an SBT later in the year and want to get the biggest limit possible. I have the following active accounts:

Nationwide Bank Account, opened Jan 2012. £5,000 OD just reduced to £500. Nothing owing.
HSBC Bank Account, opened October 2010. £0 OD, nothing owing. Unused.
Nationwide Select Card, opened Jan 2012. £4,500 limit. Nothing owing.
Creation MasterCard, opened May 2012. £3,000 limit. Nothing owing.
Aqua Reward MasterCard, opened Dec 2012. £250 limit. Nothing owing.
Capital One Classic Cash back, opened Dec 2012. £500 limit. Nothing owing.
Most recent searches Dec 2012.

I was planning to wait until June / July before applying.

I was also planning to close my Nationwide, Capital One, and Aqua cards a few weeks before and waiting for them to update as settled on my credit file before submitting any applications.

Now the £64,000 question - do I close the Creation card and / or HSBC account before applying, too? Any views welcome

Tixy

I'd leave at least one credit card open, either n/w or creation. Maybe n/w because its been open longest, and its an ok limit.
My feeling is that as its not used but shows you are trusted by another bank with a sensible limit that it might help with an application (don't know this is the case but that would be my thoughts).

I doubt the hsbc bank will make any difference either way.

What SBT limit would you ideally like?

izools

Haha, £12.5K. Will try MBNA rate for life but failing that, I'll just take out a loan

Thanks for the advice!

mrpsmith

I just got a 16k limit on MBNA rate for life card. Didn't close any of my 5 other cards before applying, and had available credit of around 30k at time of application.

izools

Jeebus really!? Haha, there's hope for me yet :beer:

Although on a £28.5K income its a big ask I feel, hence wanting to have as little available elsewhere as possible when I apply.

Tixy

Brother in law got a £12k Virgin limit fairly recently, at the time had £20k limits spread over 3 other cards with a debt of around £1k on them. Earnings around £40k.

izools

It seems they like to see you already having a gargantuan amount of credit available elsewhere then? Goes against the grain a bit but rings true from what you two are saying. Interesting.

I probably shouldn't over think it, at the end of the day Nationwide Loans have a headline rate of 5.9% APR so if I were to get one of those instead chances are it would be no more expensive than a rate for life card anyway, and with all banks having to let you overpay loans now, almost as flexible.

Thanks again though, useful insights

stephane_2

If you used the Nationwide loan soft search you'll have a pretty good idea....this is what I did recently with them for a loan quotation.

izools

Yeah, I plan to.

When I do it now it shows as 23.4% lol, which I put down to the abundance of recent searches and recently opened accounts. Hence waiting until June / July or so

stephane_2

Well I had quite a few opened credit card accounts as well but was quoted 6.2% and was approved straight away....

izools

stephane wrote: »

Well I had quite a few opened credit card accounts as well but was quoted 6.2% and was approved straight away....

Yeah but two opened within the last six months and half a dozen searches in the last six months?

I'm sure it'll be fine come summer