Credit card limits....

Money_Man

barryheffron wrote: »

Hi,

I was wondering if there was a way of finding out the limits that you will be set before you get a credit card.

My wife has a Virgin card.
It is her first and only card and she was given a £4100 limit.
The initial 0% deals ended last month and i looked into getting her a card to transfer the balance of £2500 to.

As i had recently set up an Alliance & Leicester bank account for her and their card seemed to be one of the best long term 0% mentioned on this site, i went for that.

The limit they offered was £1200.

Therfore this is no good for moving the full balance.

What would my best option to go for now?
If i apply for another card in the hope that it will have a better limit then that will add another search to her credit score and may not even have enough of a limit.
Or should i cancel her Alliance & Leicester card and try for another one?

Without knowing the limit before you accept it is difficult to make these decisions.

Any help please would be much appreciated.

Why not call Customer services and transfer some of the limits between the accounts? As soon as you get enough limit on the new A & L Card you can start the transfer process albeit not directly of course! hope this helps!

[Deleted User]

barryheffron wrote: »

might also explain this:
my own first card was a halifax one card. when the 0% was about to run out i applied for a RBS as it had best offers on at that time.
the limit was a 1100 as opposed to the 2200 i had on the halifax card.
am i right in thinking they are both the same company?
when i tried to balance tranfer the first time they couldnt do it but they guy tried again and it went through and he told me that sometimes they can and sometimes they cant transfer between these cards.

will look into the rbs card but soooo wish i had known this before getting her the A&L card as she thinks i messed up her application!

RBS and HBOS are different companies. Different companies have different criteria, so its possible that RBS simply didnt assess you as credit worthy of more then 1.1K at the time. If you have low limits you might be able to get a bit extra by giving them a ring and asking them to up it.

Be aware that credit cards are a tool to make you work for the bank. Only spend what you have matched in savings then you cant go wrong. You need to be spend to your means otherwise you might as well quadruple the price tag, TV- £200 for currys, £800 for the Bank, £30 of depreciated televisual asset for me.

barnishroader

inmypocketnottheirs wrote: »

Halifax are Bank of Scotland (referred to as HBOS).

RBS is Royal Bank of Scotland (also owns Nat West).

HBOS and RBS are totally different companies.

HTH

oh right, thought HBOS included RBS.....D'oh!

The guy did say at the time though that sometimes it wasn't possible to transfer from Halifax to RBS though....

barnishroader

Money_Man wrote: »

Why not call Customer services and transfer some of the limits between the accounts? As soon as you get enough limit on the new A & L Card you can start the transfer process albeit not directly of course! hope this helps!

Sorry but i'm not sure exactly what you mean by transfer the limits between the accounts?

Money_Man

barryheffron wrote: »

Sorry but i'm not sure exactly what you mean by transfer the limits between the accounts?

If both accounts are underwritten by the same company, MBNA (Bank of America) she is quite within her rights to call and ask for this to be done.
As soon as you have maximised the limit on the 0% card you can start the process, do you see what I mean now?

barnishroader

Money_Man wrote: »

If both accounts are underwritten by the same company, MBNA (Bank of America) she is quite within her rights to call and ask for this to be done.
As soon as you have maximised the limit on the 0% card you can start the process, do you see what I mean now?

ok, so i should get her to call and ask for the transfer of limit and when they increase it, then make the balance transfer.

thanks for that, it is something i never knew about.

i see you are a newbie so glad to have you on board if you can offer good advice like that.

Money_Man

barryheffron wrote: »

ok, so i should get her to call and ask for the transfer of limit and when they increase it, then make the balance transfer.

thanks for that, it is something i never knew about.

i see you are a newbie so glad to have you on board if you can offer good advice like that.

Yes, she will be fine to swap limits between accounts held with the same company, the transfer you will have to facilitate by another account as the balance is with the same lender in effect but i assume you are familiar with this process Barry?. Thanks for the welcome, been lurking for a while but finally took the plunge and decided to join!

[Deleted User]

MBNA wont balance transfer to themselfs so it doesnt matter what the limits are.

Unless you use the egg card trick or via a 0% transfer fee card.

YorkshireBoy

Yant1 wrote: »

MBNA wont balance transfer to themselfs so it doesnt matter what the limits are.

Unless you use the egg card trick or via a 0% transfer fee card.

You are forgetting that the A&L card will allow the transfer of a (ficticious ) overdraft, ie pay money into your current account at 0% (albeit with the standard BT fee).

OP could then simply settle the Virgin balance from his current account.

Barry, for future applications you may find this 'who owns who' table useful...

https://www.stoozing.com/cards.htm

[Deleted User]

OMG you serious. Learn something new every day.

Do any cards do this with low BT rates and a 12 month offer? Im fancying more stoozing now. edit just found out A+L is now 12 months thus is good.

These CC companies are fantastic they keep the free money comming.