Newbie help please- want to apply for a credit card.

jdwx

Hi all,

I've been browsing this forum for a while and THINK that I understand how credit cards work but still not sure!

I don't think I have a very good 'credit rating' / will be appealing to lenders (Don't know if any of the following factors would affect it; only been at current address 4 yrs - OH pays all bills & I send money to his bank to contribute so whilst i'm named on council tax etc I don't pay it - never had any form of credit - applied and was rejected for a few phone contracts around 4 years ago)

anyway, my questions are;

Am I right in thinking I could use a credit card to pay for things I usually buy i.e food shopping, and then just pay the amount without being charged interest?

and

Would it be better (as in more likely to be accepted) to apply for a credit card with the bank I have current & savings accounts with or one of the 'bad credit' cards like the ones in the MSE article?

Sorry for the long post, hope someone can help

nicholaswitchell

jdwx wrote: »

Hi all,

I've been browsing this forum for a while and THINK that I understand how credit cards work but still not sure!

I don't think I have a very good 'credit rating' / will be appealing to lenders (Don't know if any of the following factors would affect it; only been at current address 4 yrs - OH pays all bills & I send money to his bank to contribute so whilst i'm named on council tax etc I don't pay it - never had any form of credit - applied and was rejected for a few phone contracts around 4 years ago)

anyway, my questions are;

Am I right in thinking I could use a credit card to pay for things I usually buy i.e food shopping, and then just pay the amount without being charged interest? << Yes

and

Would it be better (as in more likely to be accepted) to apply for a credit card with the bank I have current & savings accounts with or one of the 'bad credit' cards like the ones in the MSE article? << Try your own bank, then one of the bad credit type cards from either Vanquis or Aqua.

Sorry for the long post, hope someone can help

See comments in red.

Nasqueron

Just set up a payment by direct debit for the full amount every month and then put your payments on the CC - see if you can get a card that offers some bonuses as well (use the MSE checker tool to see if you could qualify for a suitable card)

pheonix254

jdwx wrote: »

Hi all,

I don't think I have a very good 'credit rating' / will be appealing to lenders (Don't know if any of the following factors would affect it; only been at current address 4 yrs - OH pays all bills & I send money to his bank to contribute so whilst i'm named on council tax etc I don't pay it - never had any form of credit - applied and was rejected for a few phone contracts around 4 years ago)

So check your credit file then - "noddle" allow you to do this for free for one of your 3 credit reference agency files (the Callcredit one). You can then check if there is any history of you at your address and it'll give you an idea of whether you have bad credit. As always, take any "score" with a huge pinch of salt - it's a number based on very limited information and largely meaningless to your actual possibility of getting credit.

If you were rejected years ago - this could have been simply because you had no data on your file and they didn't accept this risk. Not that your credit history was poor, necessarily.

jdwx wrote: »

Am I right in thinking I could use a credit card to pay for things I usually buy i.e food shopping, and then just pay the amount without being charged interest?

yes, if you pay the balance off, in full, every month, as per your statement. The easiest way of doing this is to set up the direct debit for the full amount.

jdwx wrote: »

Would it be better (as in more likely to be accepted) to apply for a credit card with the bank I have current & savings accounts with or one of the 'bad credit' cards like the ones in the MSE article?

Use the MSE eligability checker to see what your chances of being accepted are for different cards, and go with that. Just remember, that actual applications will put a search on, and hence damage, your credit file. The eligability checker on the other hand does a soft search which doesn't show on your file.

jdwx

nicholaswitchell & Nasqueron thank you.

pheonix254

So check your credit file then - "noddle" allow you to do this for free for one of your 3 credit reference agency files (the Callcredit one). You can then check if there is any history of you at your address and it'll give you an idea of whether you have bad credit. As always, take any "score" with a huge pinch of salt - it's a number based on very limited information and largely meaningless to your actual possibility of getting credit.

If you were rejected years ago - this could have been simply because you had no data on your file and they didn't accept this risk. Not that your credit history was poor, necessarily.

Thanks, I attempted to sign up to 2 of the 3/4 well known sites, they both requested recent copies of ID (proof of address/passport etc), majority of my bills are electronic and the others i.e water, council tax were yearly statements, don't have a passport - anyway got too annoyed to carry on trying! Don't know if its relevant but 192.com (who I believe buy electoral roll data) seem to think i'm 49 yrs old, and also link me to my old address, despite me registering current details on electoral roll!


Use the MSE eligability checker to see what your chances of being accepted are for different cards, and go with that. Just remember, that actual applications will put a search on, and hence damage, your credit file. The eligability checker on the other hand does a soft search which doesn't show on your file.

Just tried this, apparently have 70% chance of being accepted for 'Capital One Classic Extra', 'Capital One' and 'Luma'.
The numerous searches/applications thing is why I haven't just gone ahead and applied yet!!