Repost - Put in Credit Card forum in error

Furryconker

Hello.


I'm a bit stuck. I really want to take advantage of one of the great credit card balance transfer offers that are currently out there but for some unknown reason I'm being declined en mass. Even my own bank won't sign me up (that's the same bank that gave me a 6 figure mortgage too 10 months ago....).


I've even got credit reports from Equifax (£3 for a one off one) and Experian (£15 for the month membership) to see if something is horribly wrong but all that's come up is an electoral roll issue that was an issue on their websites/databases (I checked with the council and we are on the roll at this house).


Personally I have the following "credit" :
1 x Credit Card (Barclaycard that I want to do the transfer from, near £7000 limit with approx. only 25% of that used)
1 x Store Card (Argos Card with a £2500 limit and around 30% of that used)
1 x Overdraft (£200, rarely used old account. Maintained for emergencies)
1 x Mortgage (Repayment Mortgage with no missed payments or payment holidays, in good stead since it started last July).


So ignoring my mortgage thats a total of around £2700-2800 of used credit.


All of the utility bills are paid by Direct Debit. Council tax is paid online with no payments missed (indeed it is usually paid early !).


Overall I think I'm in pretty good shape. Heck I'm even rated "excellent" by Experian for what that appears to be worth.


My partner is in the process of going through a messy divorce with an ex who shall we say didn't handle his finances very well however we do keep our finances apart and she has no financial ties to this property bar living in it. The finances she left behind are in a right state however with her ex mishandling his money left right and centre with the major issue now being an old Lloyds account that he put over a £1000 in debt after they split up. It's now with a collection agency but has nothing to do with me and hasn't turned up via any associations on either Credit Report I have obtained.


My partner and I did briefly have a joint account which we have since removed her from (3 months or so ago) which hasn't had the association broken correctly by the Halifax, but since this turned up on the Experience report this has been disputed and will hopefully disappear in due course.


Is this last point likely to be my bane or am I missing something ? Admittedly since moving here I've have 2 addresses in 2 years but that didn't stop my mortgage going through....


I was told by the Halifax today to reduce my credit limits if I am not using them as it may appear that I am using more credit than appears as the limits are "pre-approved" i.e. "used but not used" but that seems at odds at the plus mark I get for having high limits but low usage on my Experian report.


I'm a bit lost what to do next and any advice will be gratefully received.


Thanks !

The_Boss

1) If your credit reports are not showing you on the electoral roll then that is an issue. Do they show you? Ignore the fact that the council have confirmed, you need these to be showing on your report.

2) If you had a joint account with your partner briefly, that could be enough to link you. What does it say on your Experian/Equifax accounts?

3) What is your salary?

4) How many recent credit searches are howing on your credit files?

Furryconker

Hi and thanks.


1) I updated my details on Experian and rang them to confirm the issue. Everything is now correct Electoral Roll wise now. I verified this by signing up to Noddle and that was correct 1st time.


2) The joint account is there despite Halifax supposedly removing all records of her when we took her off the account a number of months ago. She was till linked on Experian but according to them they have now raised it with Halifax and it should be sorted mid next week. I've done the same with Noddle as it was also there (along with an old mortgage account linked to my ex-wife !!!!).


3) £21000


4) There are a quite a few searches as I've been trying to sort out a balance transfer since January. With each "no" its got more and more frustrating....


Anything else ? Does this help at all ?

The_Boss

THanks for that.

If you were not showing as on the electoral roll when you applied for the cards, this would be a possible reason for being rejected. Were you showing as on there when you first checked Experian/Equifax?

The financial link won't be helping if her credit worthiness has been affected by the ex.

How many searches are there on your files? As with each passing search within a short period of time you are increasing the risk of rejection. The general guideline is ideally no more than 3 within 6-9 months.

Furryconker

Hey again.


1) It appears that "paperwork" issue probably was there when I started this process in January but I've been declined today when the Electoral Roll information was correct on Experian / Noddle.


2) I'll ring and nag Halifax myself today to get that link removed asap.


3) There are 9 searches on there at present, some are Experian though for when I applied for my Credit Report. 6 of them are for Card Applications which started back in January.


Thanks again !

The_Boss

I'd say the 9 previous searches is the likely reason for being declined today. Lots of searches make you seem desperate for credit, which makes you a big risk in lenders eyes. You should wait for some of these to drop off your report, which they will after a year as 9 is a large number.

JKSandy

Wait till at least 3 of the 6 credit searches have fallen off before reapplying and until then look to try and pay off the Argos card as I'm sure this will have the highest APR. (pay just over the minimum on your barclaycard at thee same time)

optimist68

It's wise to have the balance of your credit consistently below 10% of your overall available credit.

Too many searches give a bad impression of your current financial status, so you need a time period when searches have ceased and you're operating in a more financially stable manner.

People often clean up their credit file to get their mortgage or other high purchase and you're often given mortgages on that basis, so it's not always good to add more credit to that. Depends on how soon after your mortgage you applied for the extra credit cards.

Furryconker

JKSandy wrote: »

Wait till at least 3 of the 6 credit searches have fallen off before reapplying and until then look to try and pay off the Argos card as I'm sure this will have the highest APR. (pay just over the minimum on your barclaycard at thee same time)

Funny because that has been my exact plan due to the inability to get a card to do a balance transfer on ! It's what I've been doing the past few months and the Argos Card will be clear by late summer.


I'm guessing then if I don't want to keep on paying for Experian I need to print a hard copy of the report and continue to use Noddle and review accordingly.


I still find it strange the Halifax would lend me £105,000 as a mortgage but won't sign me up for a balance transfer credit card.

The_Boss

Furryconker wrote: »

Funny because that has been my exact plan due to the inability to get a card to do a balance transfer on ! It's what I've been doing the past few months and the Argos Card will be clear by late summer.


I'm guessing then if I don't want to keep on paying for Experian I need to print a hard copy of the report and continue to use Noddle and review accordingly.


I still find it strange the Halifax would lend me £105,000 as a mortgage but won't sign me up for a balance transfer credit card.

It's not funny at all. Different lenders assess applications for different financial products differently.

Cancel the Equifax subscription - you do not need it. Keep the Experian report (print and file). As you say, monitor Noddle ongoing but then get your £2 statutory reports with Experian and Equifax perhaps in January next year.

Furryconker

Equifax was a one off payment of £3 I think, I was just desperate to get some kind of information. I read it and re-read it and still couldn't see anything, but its a terrible report to read.


I re-subbed to Experian just for this month to see if anything popped out at all on their far easier to read reports and thats where I noticed the joint account financial link that should have been broken and the fact they had me in no mans land Electoral register wise since October 2013. I checked my details and updated them, made the call to their customer services team and voila all was present and correct very quickly.


I guess what were saying is that in my desperation (naiveity ?) to get something sorted I've actually made things worse by leaving these tracks everywhere across my financials. Lesson learned there I guess.


I guess 9 months or so of paying more than I'd like but knowing (hopefully) what to do going forward is better than plodding on regardless....


So my plan remains to :


1) clear the Argos Card by late summer. I've set up a tracker to make sure I stick to that, pay off relevant plans in the correct order to avoid interest and am clear by September.


2) Then move onto paying what I can off of the Barclaycard in the short term before revisting transfers etc in Early 2015.


Anything else I could do ? Thanks so much for your help.