Halifax Clarity APR

askingt

Hi everyone,

I applied for Halifax Clarity card and got the highest APR - 21.9%, which is supposed to be (according to MSE and also Halifax) only for riskiest customers. I monitor my credit file very carefully and know that I have a very good score. They wouldn't explain to me how this decision was made...

What should I do? Sounds like they are deceiving applicants saying that you can get 12.9% APR.

Many thanks

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

askingt wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I applied for Halifax Clarity card and got the highest APR - 21.9%, which is supposed to be (according to MSE and also Halifax) only for riskiest customers. I monitor my credit file very carefully and know that I have a very good score. They wouldn't explain to me how this decision was made...

What should I do? Sounds like they are deceiving applicants saying that you can get 12.9% APR.

Many thanks

Evidently Halifax's estimate of your score doesn't match your own.

tripled

I just looked to see what mine is, apparently it's 17.95%. I think they're a bit picky with their Clarity card so I wouldn't worry about it too much unless you're actually thinking of holding a balance on it for more than a few days.

Oddly enough though, they trusted me enough to give me double the limit I asked for but not the 12.9%.

grumbler

askingt wrote: »

I applied for Halifax Clarity card and got the highest APR - 21.9%, which is supposed to be (according to MSE and also Halifax) only for riskiest customers. I monitor my credit file very carefully and know that I have a very good score. They wouldn't explain to me how this decision was made...

They don't have to explain anything. The only they have to do is to make sure that in the last 12 months [STRIKE]66%[/STRIKE] 51% of applicants were given their "Representative APR".

What should I do? Sounds like they are deceiving applicants saying that you can get 12.9% APR.

Pay your balance always in full, don't withdraw a lot of cash - and the APR will be of very little importance.

tripled

grumbler wrote: »

They don't have to explain anything. The only they have to do is to make sure that in the last 12 months 66% of applicants were given their "Representative APR".

I believe that's actually 51% now - so even more people don't get the headline rate!

grumbler wrote: »

Pay your balance always in full, don't withdraw a lot of cash - and the APR will be of very little importance.

Actually given one of the main benefits of the card is to withdraw money overseas cheaply, it does have an impact - but provided the withdrawls are repaid within a few days it shouldn't be too significant.

grumbler

tripled wrote: »

I believe that's actually 51% now - so even more people don't get the headline rate!

You are right. It changed to 51% in 2011.

Actually given one of the main benefits of the card is to withdraw money overseas cheaply, it does have an impact - but provided the withdrawls are repaid within a few days it shouldn't be too significant.

Well, I said "of little importance", not "of no importance".

£200 withdrawn will cost £1.30 p.m. more with the highest APR than with the 'representative' one. Hardly "an impact", even if you wait for a month to pay it back.