retired and need new credit card

Superscrooge

If you can get another 0% purchases card. Don't cancel your old card.

Keeping the old CC account will reduce your % credit utilisation and increase the average age of your accounts.

eskbanker

trickydicky14 wrote: »

Thanks for your response but I think you miss my point, whilst I have free credit via my card, I save my money in some sort of interest account and when the interest free period ends I just pay off the card in full and keep the interest I have made over the two years.
I am not spending what I don’t have I am just making some money out of the process, I thought lots of MSE followers did this??

Indeed, there are many on here who stooze, but to do this does depend on being able to get interest-free credit, although the benefits of doing this are much reduced in the prevailing low interest environment anyway (how much are you getting on your balance just now?).

If you can still get hold of interest-free credit then go ahead, but your reference to potentially not being able to do this as "a problem" made me think it was a more significant issue than simply missing out on a chance to earn a few extra quid in interest!

So your title could more accurately be about wanting another 0% card for stoozing purposes rather than needing a card as such?

Anthorn

trickydicky14 wrote: »

Can you advise?
I have a squeaky-clean credit report and have never been turned down for anything financial (yet) and always had a couple of credit cards on the go mainly for 0% purchases.
My Halifax credit card is due to be paid off in full in the near future so I will do that no problem and move on to a new card.
Now I see a problem looming, I have recently retired and a minimum wage needs to be available to get these cards, well my pension is tiny less than 5K a year and my state pension does not kick in for a few years yet. I tend to live of modest income from savings and investments.
I currently bank with several of the credit card providers and have a very good track record with them and have had credit cards with some of them in the past with no issue.
Do you think I could find a way round my problem, would I be better going to see the card providers in person as I don’t want to get rejected by applying online. What’s my chances or are the rules set in stone?

I'm 66 years old and getting the basic state pension including Savings Credit of £8552.44 p.a. and I don't have problems getting a credit card although there is sometimes the ouch factor: In the past week I got a Tesco 0% fee card with 15 months 0% B.T., 12 months 0% M.T., £2600 limit and the ouch factor was 25.9% APR. The relatively high APR will not affect me and the limit and 0% interest periods are what I wanted.

My best recent applications was a 24 months BT card from Virgin Money and in the past I've found Lloyds Banking Group to provide very good offers, certainly more than I expected.

Go for it. If in doubt, apply.

EachPenny

Anthorn wrote: »

I'm 66 years old and getting the basic state pension including Savings Credit of £8552.44 p.a.

The OP stated they have an income of less than £5k. Many banks have a minimum income requirement of £5k (or more) and both Virgin Money and Lloyds are likely to reject the OP on income grounds alone.

Anthorn wrote: »

Go for it. If in doubt, apply.

Except that applying randomly for cards you have no hope of getting only has the effect of perhaps making less likely you will be successful on subsequent applications. Always follow the advice on sites like MSE to first identify the cards you are most likely to be accepted for.

Anthorn

EachPenny wrote: »

The OP stated they have an income of less than £5k. Many banks have a minimum income requirement of £5k (or more) and both Virgin Money and Lloyds are likely to reject the OP on income grounds alone.



Except that applying randomly for cards you have no hope of getting only has the effect of perhaps making less likely you will be successful on subsequent applications. Always follow the advice on sites like MSE to first identify the cards you are most likely to be accepted for.

Complete and utter drivel which shows that you have not read my post or you are incapable of understanding it. I reiterated the personal experience of a retired person (me) applying for credit cards and that is on-topic.

You make assumptions and apply blanket definitions without proof. How do you know that any card issuer will decline the OP based on low income? There is that "very good track record" to consider which will no doubt be reflected in the OP's "squeaky-clean" credit history. The OP has no idea at all that they will be accepted or rejected until they apply. Hence, "If in doubt, apply".

That "squeaky-clean" credit history should be enough to at least get the application referred for a further appraisal by a real person.

I have personally been successful in getting several cards for which I didn't qualify not least of which is American Express charge card!

Lastly, is it true that making more than a few applications is viewed as a negative by lenders? In my own personal experience no it isn't. Certainly that's what for example Clearscore says. But in the last year I have made 7 credit applications the last being last week for a Tesco card and all of those credit applications have been successful.

adindas

Anthorn wrote: »

Lastly, is it true that making more than a few applications is viewed as a negative by lenders? In my own personal experience no it isn't. Certainly that's what for example Clearscore says. But in the last year I have made 7 credit applications the last being last week for a Tesco card and all of those credit applications have been successful.

While your experience might say it is not true. Other people experience tell otherwise.

Your personal single experience does not necessary reflect the situation on the market. Also keep in mind you might be weak in some areas such as many credit searches, but you might be excellent on the the other areas such as high earners, income, etc, good spending habit with credit card (if they could get this info) ...

Anthorn

adindas wrote: »

While your experience might say it is not true. Other people experience tell otherwise.

Your personal single experience does not necessary reflect the situation on the market. Also keep in mind you might be weak in some areas such as many credit searches, but you might be excellent on the the other areas such as high earners, income, etc, good spending habit with credit card (if they could get this info) ...

You have not linked to "other people experience" so I can't really comment on it.

What you and others completely fail to understand is that the rules are not set by "other people" or MSE or any other person or organisation which allegedly predicts the actions of lenders all of which are different to each other and may have different rules which they are keeping secret. The rules are set by the lenders and applying a blanket rule to all of them is misleading. Those rules as reported by MSE have not changed in the 6+ years since I first came to MSE as a financial untouchable and general b'tard. We must consider that over time those reported rules may become out of date again to the point of misleading. By all means report personal experience and attempt to turn it into a rule but also recognise that over time personal experience could change.

firefox1956

I have not applied for a credit cards for many years.
Do they actually ask & need to see proof of earnings now ??
Or could you be shall we say 'economical with the truth' when asked about your earnings ??

bigadaj

firefox1956 wrote: »

I have not applied for a credit cards for many years.
Do they actually ask & need to see proof of earnings now ??
Or could you be shall we say 'economical with the truth' when asked about your earnings ??

You can lie, the consequences of which could be cifas markers and an inability to gain any form of credit for many years with closure of existing credit cards and bank accounts.

Anthorn

firefox1956 wrote: »

I have not applied for a credit cards for many years.
Do they actually ask & need to see proof of earnings now ??
Or could you be shall we say 'economical with the truth' when asked about your earnings ??

I am always asked about earnings but I have never been asked to prove it. When I was employed my employer was contacted only once.

There is a little known service used by lenders called National Hunter. This compares credit applications and highlights inconsistencies across different applications to identify fraud. So being economical with the truth will only be successful if you have done the same with all credit applications past and present. But recognise that it's fraud.
http://www.nhunter.co.uk

Generally we tend to focus on CRAs but fail to recognise that there may be other services used by lenders which could affect credit applications. National Hunter is one of them.