Prioritise mail order account or credit cards?

Treguard

Hi

I have a situation where I'm currently paying off my debts, and need to apply to change my mortgage to another provider within the next couple of months.

I currently have five credit cards with around 40% usage overall, and one mail order account. The mail order account used to be with JD William's, but was moved across to lowell finance. The strange thing is that this is still counted as an 'open' account on my credit file.

Would I be better paying off and closing the lowell account, or keep making payments to it and pay a chunk off my credit cards?

I'm unsure as well if paying off and closing the mail order account will cause my credit file to take a hit.

Natwest have turned me down twice, but I suspect its because of a late payment in October (credit file only shows updates currently up to March, so not 6 months worth of on time payments). I'm hoping it's not my ex causing the problems (I'm in the process of trying to get her off the mortgage).

Thanks in advance

Adam

[Deleted User]

What are the cards, balances and APR's?

And also total debt amount including the JDW account

Treguard

Hi Gary

many thanks for the reply. Details are:-

Mail order account:

Lowell Portfolio - £414 (originally JD Williams - has never defaulted, but won't show % of avaialable used)

Credit Cards:-

Vanquis Bank - £104 out of £1750 - 30% ish APR

Barclay Card - £950 out of £1250 - 0% (balance transferred from HSBC)

HSBC - £1250 out of £8000 - 14% (rest of balance transferred off this card)

MBNA - £3800 out of £4500 - 0% (balance transferred from HSBC)

Capital One - £560 out of £750 - 0% (balance transferred from Vanquis)


I've been paying (and can continue to pay) £300 per month off the balances, and two weeks ago applied for the Capital One and MBNA Card. I'd applied for the Barclaycard back in January.
I've tried to not go near the max avaialble credit for the cards that i've transferred amounts to.

Total debt = £7064
Salary = £22071
Experian score = 887

hope this helps

AnotherJoe

You are applying for multiple credit cards yet worried that

paying off and closing the mail order account will cause my credit file to take a hit.

5 credit cards plus 2 more on the way !

Pay off the store card and get rid and then pay off cards at highest APR first


Your Experian score is, literally, irrelevant.

Treguard

Sorry I meant 5 total.
Vanquis opened 2017
HSBC opened 2018
Barclaycard opened January 2019
Capital one and MBNA opened April 2018

The last three were just balance transfers

Is that even though there isn't any interest on the store card?

Treguard

Sorry, those mbma and capital one cards were opened Aprol 2019

Candyapple

Enter your debts into the link below and pay them off in the 'interest order' accordingly.
http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

In addition in the medical records there was a letter incorrectly filed relating to another patient. You mention Natwest have turned you down twice – was this for a re-mortgage application or something else? If you’ve had 3 (or possibly 5 incl. Natwest) hard searches within the last 6 months, new accounts opened meaning this will affect your account history length, plus late payments those factors will definitely hamper your chances.

Have you checked all 3 of your credit files to see what they show?
Experian: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/creditclub
Equifax: https://www.clearscore.com
Call Credit: https://www.noddle.co.uk

Treguard

Thanks for the reply. Sorry I meant do you think the open lowell account will count as a black mark?

Candyapple

Treguard wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. Sorry I meant do you think the open lowell account will count as a black mark?

I'm pretty sure Lowell Portfolio are debt collectors for JD Williams. Even though you say the account has never defaulted, are you sure about this? What does it show as on your other credit files?

Definitely having a defaulted account will affect your application. You need to ascertain whether it is actually a defaulted account or not first before we can advise accordingly.

Treguard

Hi. I've confirmed with them that it hasn't defaulted and doesn't show on defaulted accounts; just as a normal open one

Natwest declined me last year and couldn't give a reason. The rep said it could be because a direct debit had failed on ky current account. This year they just wouldn't give a reason, but in suspect it's because of only 5 clear payments showing on the mortgage, when I've made 7.
It could just be Natwest being awkward!!

Btw, Lowell took it on in December, so Natwest declined the first time around while it was still with JD William's

mar4848

Lowells are debt collectors, they buy debts off of the original creditor, JD Williams have sold on your debt, why is the question you should ask JD Williams if you havent defaulted, its a strange thing to happen if you are making regular payments