Applying for Credit Card and current credit card utilisation. 19 March at 11:38AM in Credit cards 4 replies 211 views

poohjj

Hello,

I currently in the process of a mortgage and completing end of this month. After I complete I will be looking to take out a credit card. I've done some shopping around and have been a good approval chance for mutiple credit cards and in particular Sanatander.

So I have two credit cards and a overall balance of £2400. My current credit utilisation is 88%. This is due to the credit card company reporting at a weird time which now makes it seem like I have a high credit card utilisation.

I was wondering would this affect my credit card application? I have paid it off however it wont update until and the 19th of april and was really looking to apply for the card end of this month for decoration of the house.

Do you guys think I should wait til it updates or do you think the fact that my  £2400 is quite a low amount it wont affect the application.

I have a salary of £127000.

Thanks in advance

TadleyBaggie

They won't have reported at a weird time, all the CC companies I have dealt with report the most recent statement balance. So if you used 88% of your credit limit on the last statements, that's what they will report.

poohjj

@TadleyBaggie

Not sure what your talking about it I’m honest 

they normally report on the 1st but they reported 48 days later on the 12th  when I’m due to pay on the 1st. So now it looks like I have outstanding balance. If it was reported on the 1st this wouldn’t be here. 

The point of the question is to ask for advice about applying for credit card..?

TadleyBaggie

poohjj said:

@TadleyBaggie

Not sure what your talking about it I’m honest 

Thought I was quite clear, based on several cards I have. So whatever...

cymruchris

Your credit utilisation is what it is over the two cards because of your balances on their respective statement dates. Those balances get fed into the credit reference agencies data, but not immediately, and sometimes can be a month or two behind your actual statement date. Credit card providers usually submit data periodically rather than daily. So for example:

If one of your credit cards noted your statement balance on the 10th of January - but only ran the data reports for the CRA's on the 9th of every month, that's already a month (into February) before the data goes anywhere, then it may actually send the file over following validation and checking on the 25th of every month, and your credit report (the free one) updates on the 19th of every month (So that would take us into March) - it can easily be two months before the statement balance from that 10th of January actually appears on your credit report depending on when your statement date is within your credit card company's data schedule, and then how their data fits into the CRA schedule of updates. 

It takes time for the CRA'S to get updated. It's not instant. 

You mention a mortgage - is this a remortgage to stay where you are - or a mortgage to buy a new home?

If you're changing address - this will have a higher impact on your ability to get credit than a snapshot utilisation for a particular month. 

I wouldn't be applying for a credit card before the mortgage money was in the bank and the deal sealed. At that point if you're in a new address, your likelihood of credit will be low, as you won't be registered at your new address on the electoral roll, and all of the existing accounts you have, once you've told them about your address change, will again feed the data into their monthly cycles, and it may take a couple of months before there's enough data showing you live at your new address before banks will trust you with a new credit card.

It is of course a lot of if's, but's and maybe's. 

When the time is right, run the eligibility checkers and see what they say.

With a salary of £127k is it possible to put aside some savings for the house decoration rather than using the credit card? (You may have other commitments I understand)