Vanquis Credit Card

Donoghue1810

Hello everyone,

I am looking to get a credit card to try and improve my credit rating and Vanquis have initially accepted me but I was wondering if it's actually worth joining them as I have seen a couple of horror stories.

This would be my first card and any help or advice would be appreciated.

Superscrooge

Vanquis is fine as a first credit card.

Set up a direct debit to pay the full balance every month. You don't want to pay interest as Vanquis interest rates are high.

As long as you use it regularly and don't miss any payments, you should find you are eligible for more mainstream cards after 6 - 12 months.

Donoghue1810

Thank you for the reply Superscrooge.

Is there a minimum I should spend on it per month? reason I ask is that I could pay my Next bill with them which is quite small, right now it's around £10 per month.

Anthorn

Donoghue1810 wrote: »

Hello everyone,

I am looking to get a credit card to try and improve my credit rating and Vanquis have initially accepted me but I was wondering if it's actually worth joining them as I have seen a couple of horror stories.

This would be my first card and any help or advice would be appreciated.

What are the horror stories recounting?

Vanquis was my first credit card when I became a financial non-entity back in 2008 and I have nothing but praise for them. These days though in the sub-prime market there may be better deals open for you. For example the Cashplus credit card with a limit up to £1000 and an APR of 32.9% and a £10 annual fee. Then there is Barclays, Capital One, &C. Overall, shop around.

Btw there appears to be some confusion on MSE boards between the Cashplus credit card and the "overdraft" offered with the Cashplus prepaid card. The latter is high interest equivalent to a short-term Payday loan.

Donoghue1810

Misread your original reply, basically the stories were Vanquis charging extortionate amounts and putting people in severe financial difficulty.

I looked at Cash Plus but I don't see a credit card option.

Gouki7851

If you are new to credit I would try barclaycard initial, aqua or tesco foundation card. I believe to get the cash plus credit card you must have used their products previously and it's invite only. However you say you want to pay your next payments on it monthly indicating you have a store card? If so you cannot pay credit by credit without charges. If this is the case and you already have credit, try a credit card eligibility calculator for balance transfer cards would be my advice.

Superscrooge

Donoghue1810 wrote: »

Thank you for the reply Superscrooge.

Is there a minimum I should spend on it per month? reason I ask is that I could pay my Next bill with them which is quite small, right now it's around £10 per month.

There is no minimum spend. Just pay the full balance each month and there will be no interest to pay.

Donoghue1810

It's not a store card, I just signed up online and order through their website they pay the minimum each month (it's not a big balance)

john1002

Next do allow you to pay your balance with a credit card, as to how much you should use the card, depends on your limit and what other credit you have, but I would use just under 50% of the limit ensuring you can always pay it off every month. The reason why you hear horror stories is down to people not understanding that a high interest rate will impact you if you start to carry a balance.

John

Ben8282

Donoghue1810 wrote: »

Misread your original reply, basically the stories were Vanquis charging extortionate amounts and putting people in severe financial difficulty.

I looked at Cash Plus but I don't see a credit card option.

Its not advertised. It is by invitation only and the invitations are not sent to existing prepaid card holders but to individuals somehow identified by them as being unlikely to be eligible for anything else

Anthorn

Ben8282 wrote: »

Its not advertised. It is by invitation only and the invitations are not sent to existing prepaid card holders but to individuals somehow identified by them as being unlikely to be eligible for anything else

Not true. I received an invitation yesterday from where I extracted the details for my previous post in this thread. I have a Cashplus card but I use it infrequently. They cannot possibly decide whether or not someone is eligible for a credit card without at least a soft credit search.

As I see it, Cashplus are going after Vanquis with similar wording on the advertising mail shot (prequalified vs pre-approved) and an almost identical variable APR of 39.9% after the £10 annual fee is counted.

Apparently relatively unknown at the present time is that MBNA have credit builder cards with very good BT, transfer and purchase offers and APR of 23.9% and 25.9% variable after the offers expire. MBNA has a compulsory soft search after which they may or may not make an offer of a card. Likely to stir up the not-quite-sub-prime market currently dominated by NewDay I'd say.
https://www.mbna.co.uk/compare-credit-cards/