Moving on from credit building credit cards (Vanquis, Aqua etc)

On_The_Ball

Hi All

My partner went bankrupt in March 2009 and has been completely discharged since 2010. To rebuild her credit record she already has the Aqua, Vanquis, Barclaycard credit builder credit cards and has had her credit limits raised on all. She also has catalogues for the same reason and has never missed a payment on the cards or catalogues since bankruptcy.

She is now looking to get a credit card that isn't for high risk people to improve her credit record further. She has, a year ago, applied for an failed to get a Tesco credit card.

She has a permanent job and earns £36k a year. My record is excellent, we live at the same address and she has been a second card holder on many of my cards.

She has been advised that she no longer has to declare she was bankrupt by her receiver as a meeting was held on the 18th of June 2014 to close her file completely.

Does anyone know what would be good to apply for rather than keep trying and failing?

Thanks for any help.

nire

I may be wrong but i don't think declaring the bankruptcy is the issue. Credit Card companies will look at your wife's credit file when she applies and because the pre-bankruptcy debts will still show on her file for 6 years, it will continue to cause the decline until March 2015 (When the 6 years passes) I would assume this is causing the decline, not that she ticks the box to say she has previously been declared bankrupt.

Also, i've never heard of a receiver advising someone they no longer have to declare they've been made bankrupt on applications. Are you sure they haven't just finished their investigations and dealing with creditors and closed off the BR file from their end?

On_The_Ball

Thanks for your reply. Apologies - she wasn't in the room when I posted that; I said who said that from my rather poor memory. Someone has said it to her, not that it really matters.

Aside from having to tick that box, are there any 'in between' cards that she might stand a chance of getting?

battyboimatt

Seems odd as if you are asked "Have you ever been decalred bankrupt" then even if its 30 years in the future you have to answer yes.

The only time you can answer no is if its a question like "In the last 3/4/5 years have you been bankrupt" providing you have been dicharged longer than that period

Grumpy_Shunter

On a slight tangent (apologies to the OP), I was discharged without an IPO in the beginning of January this year. I have applied for several credit building credit cards but declined every time!! Does anyone have any tips on how to get acceptance from one of the usual credit building card companies?

Many thanks.

Helpmeoutofthismess

Grumpy_Shunter wrote: »

On a slight tangent (apologies to the OP), I was discharged without an IPO in the beginning of January this year. I have applied for several credit building credit cards but declined every time!! Does anyone have any tips on how to get acceptance from one of the usual credit building card companies?

Many thanks.

It's so strange how people have such different experiences! I was discharged 6 weeks ago so obviously I'm still on the IS register, I haven't cleaned up my cra files yet but I was approved for a vanquis card last week!

Maybe it makes a difference that I don't have any CCJ's or that I have 2 ten year old current accounts reporting green dots every month?

I hope you get something sorted soon! If it's been more than 6 months since you last applied to vanquis I'd have another go!

H x

wildheart83

Are you on the Electoral register? It may be more to do with them being unable to verify your identity than your credit file.

Grumpy_Shunter

Yes, I am on the ER. I also have no CCJS, nothing. I am completely debt free. I have recently been successful in getting two Virgin Mobile contracts.

I can only think it's something to do with me not clearing up my credit file yet? Maybe?

wildheart83

Have you looked to see what's on your credit file at the moment?

I hadn't cleaned mine and was accepted 6 weeks post discharge for Vanquis. That being said, sub-prime lenders seem not to have much consistency - I applied for a Luma card and was declined but have recently been accepted for a Capital One card.

Grumpy_Shunter

Do you reckon it's worth giving Vanquis a call and ask why I have been declined twice since AD?

wildheart83

It'll probably only frustrate you more!

They can't tell you why you're being declined other than it being to do with information held by the CRAs. Sign up to Noddle if you haven't already, and have a look at what's on there - it might be an address mismatch between how the address appears on your credit file compared to the ER and applications, or too many searches in a short space of time.
I really hope you get it sorted soon though, for me it was the first step in getting back to "normal"