Sub Prime Card to " normal card"

A4445

How long roughly should you hold a subprime card before you are likely to be accepted for a normal card? (Clean credit file no defaults) I'm not looking to hold a balance on the card, but would like a cash back deal to earn a few £££'s back.

20aday

A4445 wrote: »

How long roughly should you hold a subprime card before you are likely to be accepted for a normal card? (Clean credit file no defaults) I'm not looking to hold a balance on the card, but would like a cash back deal to earn a few £££'s back.

Have you considered the Aqua Reward card which offers 0.5% cashback (up to £100 per year). It's a sub-prime card with a rep. APR of 34.9% (you may be offered the card with a higher rate depending on factors including (but not limited to) credit history and their own calculations).

From my own experience I found it takes between six to twelve months' before you can try for a "normal" credit card but each individual is different I guess.

grumbler

A4445 wrote: »

I'm not looking to hold a balance on the card, ...

Don't do this. If you really need to borrow, there are cheaper ways.

darkidoe

The 0.5% cashback you earn is meagre and not worth taking into account just for a few quid. Don't be fooled into thinking you are earning the more you spend.

Superscrooge

20aday wrote: »

From my own experience I found it takes between six to twelve months' before you can try for a "normal" credit card but each individual is different I guess.

I agree, you really need at least 6 months of always making the monthly payments and never going over your credit limit and then you should have a good chance of being accepted for further credit cards.

tomxlisa

I have almost 6 months history with my capital one card and my argos store card, I have almost 6 months history with some catalogues and have almost 3 years history on one of my catalogues yet when I put my details into eligibility checkers I have very low chances of other sub prime cards and not a hells chance of mainstream cards so I think it might take longer than 6 months as people say.

A4445

Thanks for the replies, I will leave it a good 8 months to have the best chance :-)

20aday

tomxlisa wrote: »

I have almost 6 months history with my capital one card and my argos store card, I have almost 6 months history with some catalogues and have almost 3 years history on one of my catalogues yet when I put my details into eligibility checkers I have very low chances of other sub prime cards and not a hells chance of mainstream cards so I think it might take longer than 6 months as people say.

Unfortunately (from what you've posted previously) you've conducted a significant amount of "hard searches" in a short space of time.

To a potential lender this'll raise an alarm; it'll look like you're desperate for credit.

In another six month's time the impact the searches have had will lessen and you might find yourself in a better position.

tomxlisa

Yeah totally agree, all the hard searches will be off my files within the next 3 months so I'll see what the eligibility checkers say then and hopefully be in a better position to apply for a better credit card than I already have.

m4rc

tomxlisa wrote: »

Yeah totally agree, all the hard searches will be off my files within the next 3 months so I'll see what the eligibility checkers say then and hopefully be in a better position to apply for a better credit card than I already have.

Didn't realise you had the Argos card too (that's Vanquis) and several catalogues. You have a reasonable amount of credit, you just need to wait a year maybe 18 months before you apply for anything at all. If you can avoid applying it will make a difference! You have 2 cards and so,e catalogues with around 6 months history, that's far too much risk for any lender other than the worst sub-prime, I doubt you would get anything more in the next 12 months and if you did it not only wouldn't worth having but it would also start that clock from the beginning. Catalogues are not seen as credit for,s of credit as they are given to pretty much anyone. Keep doing what you are doing, pay off in full and get the limits increased, avoid any searches, over the next year your accounts will age, your limits may increase, and things will look better.

Edit: and I don't believe e searches 'go' as such, they are just not as damaging. Either way it's not the searches doing you harm, it's the 4+ (you say catalogues so that's at least two but could be more) sources of sub-prime credit you have that are so new.

Anthorn

I differ with some of the foregoing posts.

When I started to rebuild my credit history nearly 7 years ago, I anticipated that there would be some time until I had it rebuilt. So after having the Vanquis card for 6 months, I applied for and got the Aqua Advance Mastercard. What happens is that every year after the first year for 3 years the APR is reduced by 5%. So that's 4 years to get from 34.9% to 19.9% which I'll get to in February this year (2016). That's 1% - 2% higher than your usual prime credit card at 17.9% to 18.9%. So in essence it's a short cut to Prime.

Related to the foregoing posts, why on earth anyone in similar circumstances to me would want the Aqua Reward card is beyond me.

In reply to the OP, in your circumstances you probably won't do better than a TSB Classic Plus current account for cashback. The Aqua Reward card is dismal: You would do better with a Cashplus or Pockit prepaid card.

On the time factor between sub-prime and prime credit cards, you should be building a clean history across a variety of credit lines. How long that history needs to be depends on lenders you apply to. Personally, I'd say 2 - 3 years.