Which credit card should I apply for?

KatherineM

Which credit card should I opt for?

I have a balance of £1,200 to transfer. I can pay this off in chunks of around £200/month. I also plan to use the card for online shopping, and will pay off what I spend most months (except Christmas!).

I've already been rejected by Barclaycard. They suggested I check my Equifax credit record: it has no inaccuracies, overall score is 990.

I began to apply for a Sainsbury's card but it doesn't allow anyone who's been refused credit in the last month.

I've recently transferred my current account to First Direct, who have also refused me a credit card but without a reason.

I'd prefer not to do multiple credit card applications as I think that'll look bad to potential lenders.

So, who should I approach next?
Thanks
K

RichL74

Has no inaccuracies is irrelevant. Do you have any missed payments or defaults on your account?

There must be something. Address? On the electoral role etc? Recent transferral of bank account may be why first direct have turned you down.

KatherineM

Hi Rich

No defaults and no missed payments in the last couple of years. I had a mini-crisis 2 years ago - I'd asked my current account provider (Natwest) to extend my overdraft to cover a temporary cashflow problem. They agreed but then cancelled it without telling me and bounced a payment to my mortgage provider (Woolwich). I sorted it out - the bank apologised, reinstated the overdraft, reimbursed me for their charges. I explained & apologised to the mortgage provider & paid to cover the missing amount. I wondered if that episode was causing a problem but there's no record of defaulted payments on the Equifax record.

I'm on the electoral roll and I've been at my current address for 4 years.

Any suggestions?

K

RichL74

Have you checked Equifax or Experian?

Not showing on one doesn't necessarily mean it won't show on another.

Maestro.

try this:

http://fluid.co.uk/long-balance-transfer-card-aq/?v=aq

you can "check your eligibility" before applying.

Being declined doesn't always mean something is wrong. I've been declined for one product, then accepted for another.

KatherineM

I applied to Fluid as suggested by Maestro. I got a message saying they couldn't find my address details, but I could still apply if I wanted.

So is there a problem with my address? It's a normal address (flat number, building number, road name, city, postcode). Postcode lookup searches can find the address. So, I'm not sure what's gone wrong.

Thanks to Rich's question, I realised that I only signed up for my Experian file, not my Equifax one. I've signed up for Equifax. I've filled in all the details and been asked to phone up to confirm my identity. Weirdly, their website told me my existing credit card was not recognised, so perhaps that's the source of the problem?

Any other suggestions welcome!
K

KatherineM

A brief update: I called Equifax and they repeatedly asked me 'what other credit agreements do you have?' - even after I'd listed all my accounts. They wouldn't tell me anything about my record but I seemed to have failed their verification check. They now want me to upload documents to a special site. So it looks like there's some kind of credit agreement on their records that I'm not aware of, perhaps fraudulent, perhaps an error, perhaps just some old account I've forgotten about.

Still not sure what the address problem is though - Equifax said the address info was fine.

This is more hassle than I anticipated just to apply for a new credit card!
Suggestions welcome
K

RichL74

It could be that something has been taken out in your name that you are unaware of.

I would suggest providing them with the ID they need so you can at least check.

Hold off with the credit applications now though as that is 3 credit checks in a short space of time which could affect you further down the line a little when you get your credit file sorted.

Tixy

Ideally you want to keep purchases on a seperate card to balance transfers - even if you are paying off the purchases each month you will still be charged interest on the purchases from the date of purchase until the date of repayment.

If you really want to use just one card then you need to look for one that has long 0% offers on both balance transfers and on purchases.

But don't apply for anything until you have checked your reports.
With equifax it may be an mis-match with the layout of your address, this seems to happen with equifax more than the other agencies and sometimes having a flat number and building number can trigger cause problems.
If you don't want to upload the documents they have request you could always just request the postal report for £2.

RichL74

I was going to suggest that however if there is a mis-match with the address, what will they supply for her £2?

Tixy

RichL74 wrote: »

I was going to suggest that however if there is a mis-match with the address, what will they supply for her £2?

It seems that this usually triggers the full report to be sent out to the format of the address that they have on file. And that this will be delivered to the subject even if she usually uses a slightly different format for the address.