CC Limit when applying

moncs

I have three credit cards at the moment, all on 0% interest, however I was looking at moving the balance of all 3 to one card again with 0% interest. (total balance - £10k)

However I wondered if there was anyway of finding out what the credit limit would be prior to an application? The reason being I don't want to apply, be accepted and only get a limit of £5k/£6k, ideally I would want the full £10k to BT all the other cards.

I hope that makes sense

MallyGirl

no way of knowing in advance. I found Barclaycard were the most generous to me. Are the 0% deals all expiring?

moncs

MallyGirl wrote: »

no way of knowing in advance. I found Barclaycard were the most generous to me. Are the 0% deals all expiring?

One is quite soon, and I thought it would be a good time to move that one to another 0% interest card and take the other two at the same time, however the other two still have over 12 months to run.


Maybe I'm being silly, however I would prefer just one CC rather than 3 separate ones as I would imagine the more CC's you have it could affect your credit score?

eskbanker

moncs wrote: »

Maybe I'm being silly, however I would prefer just one CC rather than 3 separate ones as I would imagine the more CC's you have it could affect your credit score?

They're more likely to be interested in total credit available rather than number of cards - if you were to get a new card with a £10K limit then at that point in time you'd have at least £20K of available credit, which is how potential lenders would view it, i.e. even though you (presumably) intend to close the existing cards after BTing they can't rely on that when setting limits. You might get significantly less than that £5/6K you were fearing, so probably best to crack on with an application and see what options that gives you, transferring in stages a year apart wouldn't be a bad thing....

moncs

eskbanker wrote: »

They're more likely to be interested in total credit available rather than number of cards - if you were to get a new card with a £10K limit then at that point in time you'd have at least £20K of available credit, which is how potential lenders would view it, i.e. even though you (presumably) intend to close the existing cards after BTing they can't rely on that when setting limits. You might get significantly less than that £5/6K you were fearing, so probably best to crack on with an application and see what options that gives you, transferring in stages a year apart wouldn't be a bad thing....

Thanks for that, makes sense.

I know the credit limits on my 3 cards are a lot higher than the actual balance, is it worthwhile for me to ask the CC companies to reduce the limits?

eskbanker

moncs wrote: »

I know the credit limits on my 3 cards are a lot higher than the actual balance, is it worthwhile for me to ask the CC companies to reduce the limits?

There's no simple answer to that I'm afraid, as two of the key ratios used when assessing credit risk are balance versus available limits and limits versus salary. Reducing limits improves the second of these but correspondingly makes the other one worse....

Kendall80

Some lenders do give you your limit before you complete the application. From memory, I believe TSB, Nationwide and Lloyds did this. It was very useful.

lisa110rry

I've thought about this for a bit, here's my take, but I'm very credit averse so my thoughts may be flawed.

If you apply for a new cc and they offer you a lower limit, you could transfer the balance which is approaching the end of the 0%. Later the cc company may offer to raise your limit (always doing that with me), then could you transfer the balances of the other two?

I recently applied for a Clarity card to use abroad. One question was a polite "What credit limit would be useful to you". I said £2,000. The next screen offered £1200, but when the process was complete they offered me an initial credit limit of £7,000. My other cc limit is £11,500 and they want to keep raising it to £13,000. I have a £0 balance.

eskbanker

lisa110rry wrote: »

If you apply for a new cc and they offer you a lower limit, you could transfer the balance which is approaching the end of the 0%. Later the cc company may offer to raise your limit (always doing that with me), then could you transfer the balances of the other two?

BT cards normally have a fairly short window within which to transfer in the balance(s), certainly shorter than the period before a limit would typically be reviewed....

fozmcfc

moncs wrote: »

One is quite soon, and I thought it would be a good time to move that one to another 0% interest card and take the other two at the same time, however the other two still have over 12 months to run.


Maybe I'm being silly, however I would prefer just one CC rather than 3 separate ones as I would imagine the more CC's you have it could affect your credit score?

To quote yourself, yes you are being silly, don't waste the 12 + months of 0% on the other cards.

If you get another card with say a £10k limit over a long period such as 3 years, transferring over the balance from the finishing 0% card is obvious, but with the other 2 cards, if you can pay off them off before their 0% run out, then just do that one card.

If you aren't going to pay off the other 2 cards before the 0% on them is going to run out, then think about how much you will pay off, then transfer an excess from those two cards to the new 0% card.

So for example.

Card 1 - £4000 - running out this month, transfer all over.

Card 2 - £3000 - running out in 13 months ( you can manage to pay off £1000 before 13 months) - Transfer £2000 to new card now.

Card 3 - £3000 - running out in 15 months (you can manage to pay off £1300 before 13 months) - Transfer £1700 to new card now.

Remember that you can't transfer between same providers, such as MBNA to MBNA card. Some companies such as Bank Of Ireland also back other cards such as Post Office and AA. So again you couldn't transfer from a Post Office card to an AA card.

I do hope the reason for you having so much debt and needing to transfer it over, has been addressed, because eventually you are highly likely to run out of 0% deals. So you need to get as much paid off before that happens.

angel00079

There seems to be different schools of thought. I however, believe that three cards would be better than one. The three cards would have a lower utilisation.

Some cards have a limited BT window but Barclaycard always seem to have an offer on.

It is how you feel but I would be inclined to keep the other two. I have a card which I could pay off but I just pay money into savings account. The money is ready when offer ends.