Mainstream Credit Cards

UsetheFORCE

I currently have:

Capital One Progress (nearly 9 months) Limit £200 27.9 APR
Vanquis Alpha (nearly 6 months) Limit £100 89.9 APR
Barclaycard Intial (nearly 6 months) Limit £400 29.9 APR


Any ideas on when I am likely to get a mainstream credit card?

CherlokHomes

UsetheFORCE wrote: »

I currently have:

Capital One Progress (nearly 9 months) Limit £200 27.9 APR
Vanquis Alpha (nearly 6 months) Limit £100 89.9 APR
Barclaycard Intial (nearly 6 months) Limit £400 29.9 APR


Any ideas on when I am likely to get a mainstream credit card?

Have you tried one of the Creation credit cards?

Most of theirs are not the best cards about but you could get an half decent 0% card off them at best.

geekonthepc

Ok firstly, 89.9% on a credit card?!! I've never seen that before.

Anyway, in order to answer your question, you need to provide more details - age/employment status/est income for example. Everybody's circumstances are different. Have you had any problems with borrowing over the last few years? Are you paying your card balances off in full every month (I'd darn well hope so for the Alpha card!)

UsetheFORCE

Innovate wrote: »

Have you tried one of the Creation credit cards?

Most of theirs are not the best cards about but you could get an half decent 0% card off them at best.

Yes, declined.

My Barclaycard Intial gave me a 6.9% LOB BT.

UsetheFORCE

geekonthepc wrote: »

Ok firstly, 89.9% on a credit card?!! I've never seen that before.

Anyway, in order to answer your question, you need to provide more details - age/employment status/est income for example. Everybody's circumstances are different. Have you had any problems with borrowing over the last few years? Are you paying your card balances off in full every month (I'd darn well hope so for the Alpha card!)

My mistake, 79.6% APR....
http://www.vanquis.co.uk/alpha-summary

I'm sure it was 89.9...obviously not but bad enough!

My oldest credit account is nearly 2 years old.... all my accounts are 000000000

Both my Vanquis and Capital are used to the limit and paid off in FULL, my Barclaycard has a 6.9% BT on it...

geekonthepc

Ok fair enough it's good to see you're paying the Vanquis and Capital fully.

You'll be building your credit history nicely, but it's probably a little early to get a mainstream as you're borrowing history still isn't terribly long (9 months at best). I'd say in the short-to-medium term I'd look at getting a credit limit increase on your capital one progress and trying to lower the usage on the Alpha - that interest rate, even at 79.6%, is very unfair and you really don't want to be in a position of having to use that if times got tight. Even if Capital One stuck another £100 on your limit, it would at least mean you could bring the Alpha usage down to a minimum.

In answer to your main question though, you're probably looking at another 6 months at least before you start getting more mainstream cards. My advice would be to look at getting your Initial upgraded once you've paid your BT off - Barclaycard have much better cards and will get you a much better rate once your history is a little more prolonged.

matttye

Any recent applications? Experian/Equifax keep search records for one year and Noddle for two years. None of my recent applications have searched Noddle though.

You'll have a better chance of success with little to no recent credit searches.

JakeGreen

I'd wait until 12 months worth of history for the Barclaycard is recorded on your credit profile.

I'd also only apply for a new card if you have had NO searches on your credit file in the last 6 months.

I'm assuming everything else on your credit file is clean.

UsetheFORCE

geekonthepc wrote: »

Ok fair enough it's good to see you're paying the Vanquis and Capital fully.

You'll be building your credit history nicely, but it's probably a little early to get a mainstream as you're borrowing history still isn't terribly long (9 months at best). I'd say in the short-to-medium term I'd look at getting a credit limit increase on your capital one progress and trying to lower the usage on the Alpha - that interest rate, even at 79.6%, is very unfair and you really don't want to be in a position of having to use that if times got tight. Even if Capital One stuck another £100 on your limit, it would at least mean you could bring the Alpha usage down to a minimum.

In answer to your main question though, you're probably looking at another 6 months at least before you start getting more mainstream cards. My advice would be to look at getting your Initial upgraded once you've paid your BT off - Barclaycard have much better cards and will get you a much better rate once your history is a little more prolonged.

Is it mainly data from credit card accounts that they look at most???

I have 2 mobile phone contracts, both 14 months, my insurance shows plus elec/gas..

I also have a number of catalogue accounts that are open (oldest is 2 years), limits of £5200


I just wish they would up the limits which will allow me to start a cull on the catalogues, one of the reasons I got them was to improve my credit with a view to getting credit cards...

I applied for the Aqua Advance over the weekend, they will write to me...

matttye

UsetheFORCE wrote: »

Is it mainly data from credit card accounts that they look at most???

I have 2 mobile phone contracts, both 14 months, my insurance shows plus elec/gas..

I also have a number of catalogue accounts that are open (oldest is 2 years), limits of £5200


I just wish they would up the limits which will allow me to start a cull on the catalogues, one of the reasons I got them was to improve my credit with a view to getting credit cards...

I applied for the Aqua Advance over the weekend, they will write to me...

The older an account is, the better it looks to lenders. They're going to be wondering why you need more credit when you've just got two credit cards only six months ago. It can make you look credit hungry.

geekonthepc

UsetheFORCE wrote: »

Is it mainly data from credit card accounts that they look at most???

I have 2 mobile phone contracts, both 14 months, my insurance shows plus elec/gas..

I also have a number of catalogue accounts that are open (oldest is 2 years), limits of £5200


I just wish they would up the limits which will allow me to start a cull on the catalogues, one of the reasons I got them was to improve my credit with a view to getting credit cards...

I applied for the Aqua Advance over the weekend, they will write to me...

No, they'll look at everything. As long as you're making payments on time for all of your accounts, you're in a good position. However, they will question why you've got 3 new credit cards within the last year (you're application rate is high).

Credit card companies won't give you a limit increase immediately, some won't give you a limit increase at all without a prompt. You can always ask if you're confident you can handle it and will use it effectively, but they don't have to give it to you if they don't feel you're ready for an increased limit. Barclaycard gave me a credit limit increase on my Initial after 6 months, but I asked for it (however I was paying it in full every month and haven't used the BT offer).