Credit limit increase now, in April?

gyorfitam

Basically I'm paying for the Adobe Photography plan, Google Drive and local bus tickets from this credit card and that's it. Does it make any difference if I'm just barely spending anything compared to almost maxing out? Is it the same if I would pay only Google Drive (like £2/month) compared to buy £180-190/month worth of grocery (and always paying back in full)?
abc.xyz, which credit card would you recommend in my situation? I'm thinking about the Sainsbury's one as in this case I can play with Nectar points a little bit without the need to spend £1000+ each month and I actually have chance to get it .
In comparison:
My current card:
- 34.9% APR
- 0% interest on purchases for three months (that's obviously over by now)
- That's it pretty much
Sainbsury's Dual Offer Credit Card:
- 20.9% APR
- 0% interest on balance transfers up to 26 months
- 0% interest on purchases up to 26 months
- Collect 750 bonus points each time you spend £35 or more on Sainsbury’s shopping with your credit card, up to ten times in your first 2 months
- Collect 2 Nectar points for every £1 you spend on Sainsbury's shopping and fuel, and 1 Nectar point for every £5 you spend elsewhere.
I'm not saying this is the credit card of the century but it seems to be a reasonable step-up. What do you think guys?

abc.xyz

gyorfitam said:

Basically I'm paying for the Adobe Photography plan, Google Drive and local bus tickets from this credit card and that's it. Does it make any difference if I'm just barely spending anything compared to almost maxing out? Is it the same if I would pay only Google Drive (like £2/month) compared to buy £180-190/month worth of grocery (and always paying back in full)?
abc.xyz, which credit card would you recommend in my situation? I'm thinking about the Sainsbury's one as in this case I can play with Nectar points a little bit without the need to spend £1000+ each month and I actually have chance to get it .
In comparison:
My current card:
- 34.9% APR
- 0% interest on purchases for three months (that's obviously over by now)
- That's it pretty much
Sainbsury's Dual Offer Credit Card:
- 20.9% APR
- 0% interest on balance transfers up to 26 months
- 0% interest on purchases up to 26 months
- Collect 750 bonus points each time you spend £35 or more on Sainsbury’s shopping with your credit card, up to ten times in your first 2 months
- Collect 2 Nectar points for every £1 you spend on Sainsbury's shopping and fuel, and 1 Nectar point for every £5 you spend elsewhere.
I'm not saying this is the credit card of the century but it seems to be a reasonable step-up. What do you think guys?

No, spending £2 p/m isn't going to have the same effect as £200 p/m. Maxing out your card doesn't look good initially. But as you start to get higher limits, it won't look so bad if your spending remains the same. I would advise putting as much on the card as you can - without going over the limit, obviously. I was in the same position as you last year. I could only get a Cap One card with a £200 limit. Here's my "timeline" to now:

• July 2019: Got CapOne card, £200 limit (Used 90% of this for a few months, and paid off in full by DD)
• September 2019: Got Virgin card, £1,800 limit (I put £500+ of expenditure on this every month, and pay off in full by DD)
• December 2019: Got Halifax card, £3,700 limit (I made a large purchase on this, and have since paid off. Now unused)
• March 2020: CapOne increase limit to £450 (Card is unused)
• March 2020: Pre-approval from MBNA for £4,900 limit (Curiosity - didn't take it)

Not huge limits, but you can see that lenders are beginning to trust me more as time goes on and I repay the Virgin card every month.
The Sainsbury's card looks much better. Are you pre-approved? Rewards cards can be a little harder to get hold of, in my experience. If you're not pre-approved, I'd suggest looking at a few eligibility checkers first (although lenders do all have their own criteria, it might give you a general gist of what they're thinking of you). Use the lenders' own websites though. They're much more accurate. Lloyds, Halifax, and MBNA will give you your credit limit upfront if pre-approved. Some others may as well.

D3xt3r5L4b

Check your eligibility for the Sainsburys card before applying. 

callum9999

gyorfitam said:

Basically I'm paying for the Adobe Photography plan, Google Drive and local bus tickets from this credit card and that's it. Does it make any difference if I'm just barely spending anything compared to almost maxing out? Is it the same if I would pay only Google Drive (like £2/month) compared to buy £180-190/month worth of grocery (and always paying back in full)?
abc.xyz, which credit card would you recommend in my situation? I'm thinking about the Sainsbury's one as in this case I can play with Nectar points a little bit without the need to spend £1000+ each month and I actually have chance to get it .
In comparison:
My current card:
- 34.9% APR
- 0% interest on purchases for three months (that's obviously over by now)
- That's it pretty much
Sainbsury's Dual Offer Credit Card:
- 20.9% APR
- 0% interest on balance transfers up to 26 months
- 0% interest on purchases up to 26 months
- Collect 750 bonus points each time you spend £35 or more on Sainsbury’s shopping with your credit card, up to ten times in your first 2 months
- Collect 2 Nectar points for every £1 you spend on Sainsbury's shopping and fuel, and 1 Nectar point for every £5 you spend elsewhere.
I'm not saying this is the credit card of the century but it seems to be a reasonable step-up. What do you think guys?

If Barclaycard would only give you £200 then I'd say it's a waste of time applying for Sainsbury's. Though it's worth checking the likes of MSE credit club and Clearscore. As well as giving you your chances of being accepted for numerous cards, they can also highlight other things that might be missing such as being on the electoral roll.

My personal strategy would be to apply for a second credit card from another subprime lender (Capital One, Aqua etc) after about 6 months (so now) and then after a year or so apply for a card from your bank (assuming you have a history of regularly paying your wages in?). After a while of having a decent credit limit, you'll find it much easier to get reward and 0% cards.

As someone else said, if you can get a mobile contract or utilities in your name that would be helpful, but I wouldn't be spending anything extra to improve your record - it's not worth it.

I would also be surprised if they didn't raise your limit at the approaching 6 month mark. Conventional wisdom is that they often won't increase your limit if your utilisation is low, but I'm not sure how much that applies at low limits. I suspect they understand £200 is limiting so wouldn't necessarily be waiting until it looks like you need it.

gyorfitam

At the end Amazon was asking if I would like to have an Amazon credit card. I applied for it and got it within few days with £950 limit. I didn't know the limit until I got the card. And this is actually a reward card because I can collect Amazon points with it quite easily - I was using Amazon regularly anyway. So I guess it's a success for now .

Fighter1986

That's great, well done.

Tip - don't change a thing for the next 12 months. Keep the Barclaycard Forward but don't necessarily use it. Use the Amazon card upto ~50% of its limit continuing to pay in full.

If you just leave well alone for the next 12 months I'll pretty much guarantee you that when you plumb your details into a card eligibility checker from the likes of Money Supermarket, you'll have nearly every card coming back with 90%+ chance of approval.

D3xt3r5L4b

Fighter1986 said:

That's great, well done.

Tip - don't change a thing for the next 12 months. Keep the Barclaycard Forward but don't necessarily use it. Use the Amazon card upto ~50% of its limit continuing to pay in full.

If you just leave well alone for the next 12 months I'll pretty much guarantee you that when you plumb your details into a card eligibility checker from the likes of Money Supermarket, you'll have nearly every card coming back with 90%+ chance of approval.

You can use more than 50% of the limit if paying in full. 

adamp87

I think Barclaycard Forward after 12 months provided you’ve not missed a payment or broke your limit the card upgrades too.