Should I apply now?

SammenForLivet2

Hello All,

I was wondering if some could advise me (again?):

My annual salary is around £33,000.

I currently have four bank Credit Cards:

1.) Nationwide (opened June 2012) (Av. £3500) - (Current. £1500) - To be paid off in full by Mar 2014
2.) M&S (Opened Oct 2012) (aval. £2500) - Current £1200 - to be paid off in full by Jan 2014 - £125 per month always paid in since opening.
3.) Aqua - Paid off in full monthly, available £1,600 - opened in Feb 2013
4.) Santander - Avaliable £3000 - opened August 2012 - always paid up in full.

I also have three current account's:

1.) Barclays - for ten + years and £2,000 overdraft
2.) Santander - For just over a year - no overdraft (out of choice)
3.) Halifax Ultimate Reward - No overdraft (out of choice - was offered a match to my Barclay's account overdraft) - but account was only opened on Friday.

I decided to keep my Santander for one more year, as I don't think it would be good to close too soon.

Once M&S and Nationwide are repaid, I will probably close them.

I also have a loan for £4,500 (opened May 2013) and one for £4,000 (opened Jan 2012) - although I have made additional 'over-payments' for a number of months and hope to get the £4,000 one repaid by the end of 2014.

I want to the Barclay's Cashback card - mainly because of the good insurance and Cashback offer.

When logging into On-line banking, it's says I've been 'Pre-Selected due to my excellent record with Barclay's and also claim I have been pre-selected for a loan of £25,000'.

I was wondering if having 5 cards for a few month would be very detrimental to my credit record, and would Barclay's refuse now that I have just opened a new current account - as a sign of instabilty?

1.)Now, I was wondering if it would be better for me too leave the application until May/June 2014, when all my cards (well just M&S and are closed.

My worry is that I may not be pre-selected for the cards in the future.

According to the site I have a 9/10 chance of getting the card, although I have just opened (on Friday) a current account, so that may impact it.

So should I open the account or wait? - I have no need for new credit for the next couple (5+) years

Also, does anyone know what 'Pre-Selected' means? - Does this mean qualify or just mean that they think it could be a good account?

Many thanks for all the Forum's help as always.:j I don't know what I would do otherwise.

zerog

Your available credit is 12600 + 9500 in loans, which is OK for a 33k salary.

You have 3 recent searches. I'd apply in November when the loan search has dropped off (unless you are sure you were not searched for the loan). If declined, wait for 6 months and try again.

If you close the cards your debt to available ratio may go up.

Are the unpaid cards all 0%? Are you going to be paying off the new card in full?

SammenForLivet2

Yes - all my cards unpaid are 0%.
I plan to pay the card off in full.
Will the Halifax search be already showing?

zerog

macfamilyent wrote: »

Will the Halifax search be already showing?

According to a forum post made by James Jones from Experian which I can't be bothered to find, yes.

Sometimes you will automatically get referred if you apply outside working hours as they don't have instant access to your file anyway.

Maestro.

Doubt Barclays would refuse you for the cashback card to be honest. They accepted me with only 18 months of credit history, 19k earnings and prior refusal for two other world mastercards running roughly the same type of benefits as the barclaycard. Chatter around here suggests they're quite a forgiving lender and are generous with limits.

If you actually look into what it gives you the barclaycard is a very good one and the fee is well worth it.

SammenForLivet2

I applied for the BarclayCard High 5 on the off-chance I would get, and got an 'Referred' Response.

I called them this morning, thinking the worst and they said that a 'Credit Underwriting Analyst' had looked at the application and approved it for a limit of £8,000 - which is far more than my other cards.

I'm not too happy with such a high limit.

Now, I have heard that others have been tolled they are approved and then get a letter in the post to declining them.

1.) Is this correct?
2.) Should I be worried with such a high limit - should I ask them to reduce it?
3.) Is such a high limit (for me) going to impact on my limits with my other cards?

Thank you all very much for helping me so far.