Guaranteed Credit Limit

Yellabowley

Afternoon all,

Quick Question. I have approx £7k outstanding on a credit card (limit is £15k) and the 0% period has expired. I used one of the credit checking companies to tell me which cards I’ll be accepted for (I’ve never missed a payment and don’t have loads of credit so it was basically all of them), and when the result came up they also had guaranteed credit limits.

The top card said I would definitely get a limit of at least £5500. Obviously that wouldn’t be enough to transfer my debt over. Is there a way to know that my limit will definitely be high enough before I apply for another card?

Thanks in advance.

eskbanker

I'd be highly sceptical about any reference to 'guarantees' from a third party who isn't actually going to be doing the lending!

Many card providers will have their own eligibility checkers and some of these will indicate the credit limit they'd offer, but even if you can't transfer your entire £7K balance then shifting most of it would be better than paying interest on all of it....

Yellabowley

eskbanker said:

I'd be highly sceptical about any reference to 'guarantees' from a third party who isn't actually going to be doing the lending!

Many card providers will have their own eligibility checkers and some of these will indicate the credit limit they'd offer, but even if you can't transfer your entire £7K balance then shifting most of it would be better than paying interest on all of it....

Cheers. Not sure I like the idea of having two credit cards running at the same time though. I’ll speak directly to the credit card provider and see what they say about it. I just get paranoid about all the soft searches on my record. I’ve spent the last ten years building up from being a financial leper to where I am now. Probably shouldn’t worry so much! Thanks again.

callum9999

Yellabowley said:

eskbanker said:

I'd be highly sceptical about any reference to 'guarantees' from a third party who isn't actually going to be doing the lending!

Many card providers will have their own eligibility checkers and some of these will indicate the credit limit they'd offer, but even if you can't transfer your entire £7K balance then shifting most of it would be better than paying interest on all of it....

Cheers. Not sure I like the idea of having two credit cards running at the same time though. I’ll speak directly to the credit card provider and see what they say about it. I just get paranoid about all the soft searches on my record. I’ve spent the last ten years building up from being a financial leper to where I am now. Probably shouldn’t worry so much! Thanks again.

Soft searches don't impact your credit report whatsoever and cannot be seen by other lenders. 

Why don't you like the idea of two cards at the same time - will two sets of minimum payments be unaffordable? If you're worried about an impact on your report then it won't be remotely negative, it's completely normal to have multiple cards. 

molerat

Yellabowley said:

Cheers. Not sure I like the idea of having two credit cards running at the same time though. I’ll speak directly to the credit card provider and see what they say about it. I just get paranoid about all the soft searches on my record. I’ve spent the last ten years building up from being a financial leper to where I am now. Probably shouldn’t worry so much! Thanks again.

Most people have at least 2, I have 7.

Soft searches are seen by no one except you.

Sandtree

eskbanker said:

I'd be highly sceptical about any reference to 'guarantees' from a third party who isn't actually going to be doing the lending!

Many card providers will have their own eligibility checkers and some of these will indicate the credit limit they'd offer, but even if you can't transfer your entire £7K balance then shifting most of it would be better than paying interest on all of it....

https://www.clearscore.com/learn/credit-cards/what-is-pre-approval-and-how-does-it-work

If you believe the likes of the above from ClearScore it is the lender telling them that you will be accepted when they give you a pre-approved offer inc limit. Though in this case they do note that it isn't a guarantee of acceptance but is a guarantee of rate and limit if accepted. 

dbmabz

It's very unlikely that any third party could guarantee what your credit limit will be in advance. Doing an eligibility check on any of the credit card companies websites may give you more confidence if they show you a potential credit limit. The soft check will not harm your credit rating.

Remember that if you are looking to do a balance transfer, that your new credit card needs to be from a different card provider to your existing card.

Fighter1986

dbmabz said:

It's very unlikely that any third party could guarantee what your credit limit will be in advance. Doing an eligibility check on any of the credit card companies websites may give you more confidence if they show you a potential credit limit. The soft check will not harm your credit rating.

Remember that if you are looking to do a balance transfer, that your new credit card needs to be from a different card provider to your existing card.

More lenders are guaranteeing limits through their APIs to third party aggregator services like Clearscore and Totally Money.

Lloyds Banking Group (Inc MBNA) also guarantee limit up front when performing a soft search eligibility check on their websites.