MoneySavingExpert.com Eligibility Calculator - How accurate is it?

freeofdebt1

Hi,
Can anyone advise me please, I am in the process of rebuilding my credit after a few defaults a couple of years ago due to bad decisions by me getting caught up in the payday loan trap. I am out of this cycle now thankfully. I have a capital one credit card which is quite high interest (35% apr), the reason I have it is to assist me in rebuilding my credit in that I pay it off in full every month. I filled in the MoneySavingExpert.com Eligibility Calculator for a Barclaycard credit card this morning and to my surprise it returned a 90% chance of me being accepted. I will probably go ahead with applying for this card now due to a much smaller apr and probably a higher limit offered. My question is how accurate is this 90% chance or should I wait until it become 100%? I realise applying for this card could put me back to square one if I get rejected.
Thank you

nidO

The only people who would know would be MSE and Barclaycard if they actually got together and compared results, which they undoubtedly haven't, meaning, no-one knows.

That 90% figure is basically a ballpark guess, and it's still "only" 90%. This forum is littered with complaints and rants from people who feel MSE has "misled" them by giving them a 90% chance only to then get rejected but 90% is 90% which means even if that figure is 100% accurate, 1 in 10 people getting a 90% chance are going to get rejected.

And invariably, the other 9 don't come onto the forum complaining afterwards, so people complaining after getting rejected will invariably skew how accurate that 90% "looks" as they're the only ones complaining about it.

redux

Barclaycard has its own online eligibility checker.

xkpa

freeofdebt1 wrote: »

Hi,
Can anyone advise me please, I am in the process of rebuilding my credit after a few defaults a couple of years ago due to bad decisions by me getting caught up in the payday loan trap. I am out of this cycle now thankfully. I have a capital one credit card which is quite high interest (35% apr), the reason I have it is to assist me in rebuilding my credit in that I pay it off in full every month. I filled in the MoneySavingExpert.com Eligibility Calculator for a Barclaycard credit card this morning and to my surprise it returned a 90% chance of me being accepted. I will probably go ahead with applying for this card now due to a much smaller apr and probably a higher limit offered. My question is how accurate is this 90% chance or should I wait until it become 100%? I realise applying for this card could put me back to square one if I get rejected.
Thank you

For me, MSE checker and Barclaycard checker gave me 90% and 9/10 respectively, but i my application was declined for a second Barclaycard.

redux

xkpa wrote: »

For me, MSE checker and Barclaycard checker gave me 90% and 9/10 respectively, but i my application was declined for a second Barclaycard.

Note above their eligibility checker:

" Please note it’s not possible to apply for a new Barclaycard if you already have a credit card provided by us, including one of our partner cards."

MABLE

I have about four but some of these were acquired through migration.

Candyapple

redux wrote: »

Note above their eligibility checker:

" Please note it’s not possible to apply for a new Barclaycard if you already have a credit card provided by us, including one of our partner cards."

You are allowed 2 Barclaycards. I have 2, not through migration but 2 seperately applied for Barclaycards.

When I rang customer service last year to enquire about the 36 month balance transfer card, they advised me to apply for it online and that I could split my credit limit across both cards if I didn't receive a high enough limit.

OP - the checker will never get to 100% because then they would be held liable if someone applied for a card and were rejected.

freeofdebt1

Thanks to everyone for their advice and feedback. Well I applied this afternoon and I have got accepted I'm delighted being honest as this time last year I wouldn't have stood a chance. I'm a bit confused however as it states when you log into the dashboard "Spend" and "Available to Spend" amount both are roughly half of my available credit limit. Can anyone advise please?