stooze- reduce credit limit before close old a/c

wallet_2

i have just been turned down on appeal by nationwide and have to stick with their measly £2.8k credit limit.

i have £8k with virgin and just about to pay off and close mint £4k
my salary is £20k

to improve my chances of replacing the virgin card in 2 months time -

will my CRA file look better if i pay off my mint then reduce my credit limit to zero then close , or is it just the same as paying off and closing.

which cc are better at offering credit to high debt/income clients

Milarky

Nationwide will base your credit limit on various factors. But they may not reconsider any initial credit limit decision for six months. This is standard practice, I'm afraid. You'll find that they can up it of course, but only after the promotional period [and 0%] has ended.

As regards how quickly changes to your circumstances filter through to decisions based on the state of your CRA file - this probably takes one to three months after you pay back any debt for it to be fully reflected - as all you get on a CRA is a snapshot with a range of dates on it - i.e. never fully up to date.

This can be an advantage too, of course, if you apply for two cards in close succession there is a good chance of being accept by both.

YorkshireBoy

ceeebeee wrote:

which cc are better at offering credit to high debt/income clients

We have other "available" credit but, specifically for stoozing, I went from 98% to 141% with help from LTSB. Mrs YB went from 59% to 115% courtesy of M & S.

Clariman

Hi ceeebee

Paying off your credit card is likely to help as is closing a credit card account. However, I don't think that reducing the credit limit just before closing is going to make any difference. Amongst the things that prospective lenders look for are (a) the credit that you have available to you and (b) the amount of debt you currently have. Paying off your cards and closing them will address both to some extent. Reducing the limit on a card you are about to close isn't going to make it any better. It just seems like a waste of time.

If you have any other cards that you plan to keep but don't need the full credit limit, then you could consider reducing the credit limits on these.

Clariman

wallet_2

income £20k

mortgage £50k
stooze £12k
regular cards paid each month avail credit - £6k approx

am i lucky to have stooze that high and is that about the max i could go to.
realistically am i better to reduce to zero stooze cards for couple of months to allow masive reduction of credit to show up of credit file

Clariman

ceeebeee wrote:

income £20k

mortgage £50k
stooze £12k
regular cards paid each month avail credit - £6k approx

am i lucky to have stooze that high and is that about the max i could go to.
realistically am i better to reduce to zero stooze cards for couple of months to allow masive reduction of credit to show up of credit file

Difficult to say with any certainty because each lender is different and we don't know any more about your credit history. There are certainly quite a number of people around whose credit card limits total as much as, if not more than, their annual salary. My guess is that you could stooz a bit further, but beware of making a spate of applications because lots of credit checks on your credit file in a short period of time can damage your credit rating.

Clariman