Applying for 2 x 0% Credit Card Deals?

LJB290

I haven't applied for credit (other than a mobile phone contract) for years and I think my credit rating is fairly reasonable. My husband's credit rating is unfortunately not so good and we have some debts that we are tackling.

My questions:
Would it be a good idea (or even possible) to apply for 2 x 0% balance transfer credit cards at the same time so that we can move our CC debt over?
Am I likely to be approved for both if the searches are at the same time?
Would it be better to apply for them several months apart?
Do balance transfer cards tend to offer low levels of credit for transferring balances?
Can I transfer debt from my husbands card (I am a card-holder) to a new balance transfer card?

many thanks in advance.

bigadaj

Do you actually use credit currently, if not and you haven't applied for years then your credit file will not be attractive as you won't have a record of using and repaying credit extended to you.

You can apply for two cars at once and it's a possible work around from having an effect one one search from a previous one, how much credit do you need and what is your income?

You can normal transfer debt to your partner, though they would normally have to be between different providers, you can't transfer debt from say barclaycard to barclaycard etc

There's a tool on this site to give an indication of chances of acceptance so try on that and see what that suggests.

LJB290

Yes, I use a credit card (Nationwide) at the moment and make regular payments.
I just haven't applied for anything new for a long time (apart from phone).

My income (alone) is about £32,000 and I could do with about £8 -£10K on a 0% card to transfer higher interest debt to so that we can then tackle my husband's higher interest debt first and worry about the debt on 0% later.

My husband has some defaults on a couple of old cards and his credit score is poor.
I am obviously associated as his wife but am a joint card-holder and not an account holder.

I have had a snoop on this site and a few cards have suggested a 95% approval rate - how true / likely is this? I don't want to have hard searches go against me if I'm unlikely to be approved.

many thanks

bigadaj

OK it should all be possible then.

Your income seems to be sufficient to take the debt on, you are probably a second card holder rather than a joint one, which as you say should mean that you aren't directly associated with your his bands poor credit record.

There's no objective evidence of how accurate the predictors are, we do get people who complain that they get turned down for levels of approval you've indicated, but logically 1 in 20 people will get declined at that probability in any case.

Hard searches aren't a problem so long as the aren't too many of them in too short a timescale, rule of thumb seems to be no more than three in six months, so if you have none for a while then you can make a couple with little probability of issues.

Anecdotally mbna give higher limits which is something to consider, though when you apply you may be declined and if approved may not get the full limit on one card, if the latter then take what is offered and apply for a second to see if you can get the balance.

Always remember this is just moving debt around and reducing interest and so getting breathing space, the debt still needs to be repaid at the end of the deal.

Dan83

Read the T&C's of the card you are applying for. I'm almost certain I've seen something about them allowing a % of the credit limit transferred over, think it was about 90%.

Does that make sense?

Example
Credit limit £10,000, max transfer £9,000.