Request for Advice - Applying for Balance Transfer Cards

BananaBlend

Hi - I'm currently chipping away at some credit card debt and have about £2,500 on a card at a fairly high rate of interest. Obviously I'm looking to move that on to a 0% Balance Transfer offer if I can. Any advice you could give me on the below would be much appreciated - things have been tough but I'm gradually getting on top of it all now.

I was late on a payment to that very card around this time last year, also changing jobs and address, since then I've been on-time with all of those payments, and those of other cards and a loan. I applied for a Lloyds Balance Transfer card about 10 months ago but was rejected - since then I've been paying off what I can while biding my time, waiting for my time-in-current-job and time-in-current-address to increase and that missed payment to move further into the past. I've been able to pay-off a fair chunk of my debt so far (about a third), and I've moved some of it to 0% interest services.

I've been using the MSE card eligibility tool every couple of months, but each time I've found that I have little chance of succeeding in an application for any card. That is, until today - the tool now says that I have a 90% chance of success for a number of cards.

So I tried earlier today to apply for a Virgin card listed at 90% charge by the tool but was rejected. I can't be sure, but I suspect the problem might be that I'm trying to transfer £2,400 as part of the application - it might be the case that Virgin were willing to give me a card but only at a lower credit limit, e.g. £500.

i.e. since I tried to transfer £2,400 at the same time as applying, perhaps Virgin assessed that they wouldn't be willing to give me a credit limit as high as £2,400 and so they rejected the application, but they would have given me the card had I not tried to transfer any balances at the same time as applying?

So my questions are:

1. Would I be better off just applying for the card without trying to transfer any balances at the same time, looking to first get the card and then transfer as much as I can once I have the card?

2. Should I apply for another card immediately again, i.e. in the next couple of weeks, or would that be too harmful to my credit record if I were rejected again?

Thanks for taking the time to read this - any advice you can give would be appreciated

thebritishbloke

1. No. It wouldn't make a difference to whether they want to lend to you or not.
2. I'd try for maybe one more card. You could try using BarclayCard's eligibility checker, that usually gives a pretty accurate representation of if they'll accept you or not.

BananaBlend

Thanks for the input. I do already have a Barclaycard from a while back with some balance on a 0% offer rate so I don't think they'll let me take another card with them, but perhaps their eligibility checker can still be useful for information.

What I was hoping on 1) is that they might be happy to lend to me but not with a limit as high as £2400. I suspect it's a vain hope and you're right though and if they wanted to lend to me they would. I might apply for one more (I'm considering the Fluid card based on the MSE eligibility checker) but trying to transfer a smaller amount (or nothing initially); maybe it'll help.

thebritishbloke

Existing customers can't use the eligibility checker with BarclayCard, but you are allowed to open another 0% offer with them. Just remember that you can't transfer from one CC to another with the same lender.

The amount you try to transfer will not make a difference to their decision to accept you or not. If you say you want to BT £10,000, they still regularly come back and only offer a £1k limit for example.

If you've managed your account with BarclayCard well, they may be more willing to offer you a higher credit limit on a BT. Just contact them first to see if they're willing to transfer you to another product with a BT offer.