When should I apply for new credit?

fat-pudding

Hi, I'm just looking for some advice on when I should be looking to apply for new credit such as 0% transfers or cards on a better rate. The reasons behind this is are that on 1st January this year I owed just under £9.4k on 1 loan and 5 cards, this debt was about £13k January 2012 so I'd paid off just over £3k in a year.

I now owe just £5k having paid off £5k in the past 2 months and have paid off 3 cards and 1 loan with the outstanding balance remaining across just 2 cards. One of these cards has a £2500 limit and it's currently around £1500 balance but I'm using this card every month for all spending and then chucking as much as I can afford onto it to clear as much of the balance as possible (currently about £1k a month so it should be clear by June) while the other card has an interest rate of 14.9% but this account was closed over a year ago when they wanted to up the rate to 30%!

The way I cleared nearly £5k so quickly was that I got a big bonus from work at the end of Feb along with a 25% pay rise so I'm now earning over £42k up from £26k a year ago. Obviously I've had a huge improvement in wages and reduced the amount of credit I have available but I'm still suffering from only being offered high interest rates or refused credit.

Currently I have no CCJ's, no missed payments, nothing. I have suffered from paying just minimum payments in the past when I wasn't earning enough to clear a significant balance. I moved house twice in the past year too to get closer to work having taken a job that has massively increased my wages but we're not going to be added to the electoral register here until April (I was added at the previous place). With all that in account, how long should I wait before I try to start taking out new credit with better rates? I still hold 2 other cards (so 4 in total) with no balance on them and limits of £2k and £1100 which I would happily give up for better credit but would rather hold onto if nobody will offer me anything!

My reasoning is that If I could find a good balance transfer card it could save me a fair amount of interest. I don't want to try and apply for low rate credit now as my profile won't have updated but after how long will people take into account the large pay rise, massively reduced debts, paying way more than minimum payment and increased salary? I don't want to jeopardise anything by applying for lots of credit and getting lots of rejections now if waiting a few months would make a difference.

JDC14

I was carrying much smaller balances.

But as soon as I cleared my CapOne - I got a £300 credit increase and was accepted for a card with Natwest, all within a week.

So I'd say, wait until June, when you are clearing them. Then close them, and look elsewhere then at what's available.

JakeGreen

I check my Experian and Equifax credit reports before applying for new credit, sometimes it takes 6 weeks for the information to be updated by the banks, so if you applied for credit right now, when the new lender searches your files the balances shown will be from a month ago... at least! Sometimes the files update a couple of months at the same time so it might be worth checking your files and timing your applications when your reported debt to credit ratio is a bit lower.

As for change of address situation the lenders like to see stability, there may be other people on the forum who can advise further.

All the best,