Lloyds BT CC: If I'm offered lower amount of mths how will turning it down affect me?

Tunstallstoven

Hi all

I am looking for a new BT credit card and after going through the MSE article I think the Lloyds one (up to 33 months 0%, 0.57% Fee) suits me best. The fee is low, the length of time great, and the repayment amount (1% rather than the 2.25%/2.5% competitors charge) is fantastic!

The only downside is that some people are offered 18 mths at 3% rather than the far more attractive 33 mths at 0.57%.

If I apply for the card and get the 18 month offer, I'm not going to want it.

What I'd like to know is:

1. How detrimental it will be to me if I turn down the offer? I want to get a card so at some point will need to make another application. I don't have plans to do any other borrowing of any kind...

2. If it is detrimental, how long will impact last. Would it be cleared, say, in 3 - 6 months?

Many thanks

Max

YorkshireBoy

Your questions are impossible to answer definitively, but here's my thoughts...

1. It's a credit search that's all. The outcome isn't recorded on your credit file for others to see. Shouldn't be too detrimental, but of course that would depend on your other financial circumstances, of which you've given no indication.

2. It wouldn't bother me to apply straightaway elsewhere if I wasn't happy with the product offered.

However, some extra thoughts...

Firstly, will going through the Lloyds eligibility checker give an indication of likely length of offer?

When you say you're excited about 1% minimums, is that because you're stoozing or because you're struggling month-by-month with real debt?

Why have you discounted one of the fee-free BT offers (such as Halifax at 26 months)?

Tunstallstoven

Thanks for the helpful reply YorkshireBoy.

1. That's good news then. Perhaps I had misunderstood. I thought the MSE Eligibility Tool existed because making actual applications can harm your credit score.

In terms of my financial circumstances, if it would help to know anything then please ask away.

2. That's also good to hear

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

...will going through the Lloyds eligibility checker give an indication of likely length of offer?

Unfortunately not. It says I have a 90% chance of being accepted but not whether that would be for the 18 or 33 month deal.

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

When you say you're excited about 1% minimums, is that because you're stoozing or because you're struggling month-by-month with real debt?

It's because I'm stoozing.

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Why have you discounted one of the fee-free BT offers (such as Halifax at 26 months)?

Lloyds are offering £20 cashback so in my case that will cancel out the fee and even leave me some profit. I already have a Halifax card, so that rules that out. I have my eye on the Sainsbury card, but it is for less time and has higher monthly repayments. It is next in line though if I don't get the best deal from Lloyds.

Thanks again for the help.

YorkshireBoy

Seagull27 wrote: »

Unfortunately not. It says I have a 90% chance of being accepted but not whether that would be for the 18 or 33 month deal.

I was referring to the eligibility checker on the Lloyds website, not the one here. Or does the Lloyds one also give a % chance too?

It's because I'm stoozing.

In all my near 13 years of credit card stoozing I've never paid a BT fee. I'd take the fee-free offer now and worry about the future when it happened...in this case, 2020.

Lloyds are offering £20 cashback so in my case that will cancel out the fee and even leave me some profit.

Ah OK, not a large balance then.

I already have a Halifax card, so that rules that out.

I have two, and also two Lloyds cards. I understand you can have 5 across the group.

I have my eye on the Sainsbury card, but it is for less time and has higher monthly repayments.

I too have one, a 22 month deal taken out earlier this year, again fee-free. And a Barclaycard with the same 2.25% repayments. As ever, run the figures through a calculator (is the old stoozing site calculator still available?). You may find the impact isn't as bad as you thought.

Tunstallstoven

I think you can have multiple cards from one bank, but cannot transfer from one to t'other. The majority of my balance is on a Halifax card, so if what I said is true, then that rules that out.

You're right, I only have around £2k that I'm tarting.

I was indeed referring to the eligibility checker on this site. So I'll head over to Lloyds now and check theirs out.

Many thanks

Tunstallstoven

No, Lloyds don't specify which deal you'll be eligible for. In fact, they didn't even seem to distinguish between their different CCs on offer.

Plus, they gave me an 80% chance whereas MSE gave 90%. I'll stick with MSE then