Having issues applying for a new 0% card after stoozing on old card, what am I missing?

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Hi, I've got a First Direct card with 20k limit it had 0% for 18 months that ended in Jan, I paid off around 10k in Nov & Dec after doing minimum payments before that and investing my pay. I tried to get a card in Jan but got generally rejected or low limits like 3k or 12 months 0%. The paid off is now reflected on credit agencies as of Feb, I only have a few hundred outstanding balance and credit scores well into the top bracket still. However Virgin Money's 20 months 0% Card says 0% chance of acceptance, doesn't give any indication why it would have rejected me, I also re-applied to M&S' 18 month card which rejected me in january and it didn't give any indication straight away, just said they'd review it manually and email me, all seems very odd? What do I need to change to improve my chances? Thanks
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It could be that you have other debts/cards that might have an impact - it could be your repayment patterns - it could be your time at a current address - it's all guesswork really. If everything on your files is spot on, then there's nothing much further you can do for the moment - other than taking one of the lower limit cards and building up a higher limit through good financial management.
I did think maybe card companies are massively risk averse currently, I was reading the thread about people having their credit limits cut to near their balance, from £10K down to like £800 so I guess they're trying to reduce their risk
Get another card or two and make sure that you're using it regularly and clearing in full each/nth. Don't just rely on credit for managing debt.
Long term as this 0% stoozing seems to be a hassle when it comes to getting another card I was thinking about getting a cashback card so I'll see if I can get one of those and just leave it on direct debit and use that for most things and put the odd thing on the FD card so hopefully I'll have better history eventually