Can you see what your credit limit will be before approval?

Saria

As for the title, I assume you usually can't tell? 

I have a balance of around £4000 I need to transfer as my Virgin offer is ending in November. However I am struggling to find any good deals at the moment. I have a Natwest account (simply used to get their switching offer, don't actually use it) so thought I would check in their app for the 14-month balance card, but they denied me. 

But when I tried on the MSE eligibility checker and checked offers on Clearscore, I was pre-approved (95%) for some cards, including Natwest. The useful thing is it told me with Natwest how much I could possibly get, however this ranged between £850 and £2250 depending on the website I used. 

A few other cards popped up like M&S, but none of them actually tell you what you might get. Which makes it difficult to try to shift my debt if I don't know what I will get. Do you only find out after getting approved?

Also, why might I be getting denied for credit cards? My credit score on Clearscore is really high (900-something out of 1000), I never had a missed payment. I do have a car loan with Lloyds now, so maybe that's affecting it? I also have some old credit cards that are sitting unused, would it be best to close these?
If I apply for a card and get rejected, will that have a negative effect on my score?

I'm a bit worried at the moment about how to transfer this debt to be honest. Any advice is appreciated!

cymruchris

Saria said:

As for the title, I assume you usually can't tell? 

I have a balance of around £4000 I need to transfer as my Virgin offer is ending in November. However I am struggling to find any good deals at the moment. I have a Natwest account (simply used to get their switching offer, don't actually use it) so thought I would check in their app for the 14-month balance card, but they denied me. 

But when I tried on the MSE eligibility checker and checked offers on Clearscore, I was pre-approved (95%) for some cards, including Natwest. The useful thing is it told me with Natwest how much I could possibly get, however this ranged between £850 and £2250 depending on the website I used. 

A few other cards popped up like M&S, but none of them actually tell you what you might get. Which makes it difficult to try to shift my debt if I don't know what I will get. Do you only find out after getting approved?

Also, why might I be getting denied for credit cards? My credit score on Clearscore is really high (900-something out of 1000), I never had a missed payment. I do have a car loan with Lloyds now, so maybe that's affecting it? I also have some old credit cards that are sitting unused, would it be best to close these?
If I apply for a card and get rejected, will that have a negative effect on my score?

I'm a bit worried at the moment about how to transfer this debt to be honest. Any advice is appreciated!

Some providers will give an indicated credit limit on a soft search directly on their own websites. Don't use comparison sites like MSE's and others, as they are 'guessing' at best your eligibility. They don't have the intricate knowledge of exactly what each card provider is looking for, and uses data in a different way to estimate your chance of success against others in a similar position to yourself.

If Natwest direct are saying 'No' - and the comparison sites are saying 'mostly likely' - you can see the disparity. If you applied at this moment in time, it's very much likely a 'No' no matter what the comparison sites say.

To my knowledge the Lloyds group (Lloyds, MBNA, Halifax), the Natwest group (Natwest, RBS, Ulster) Santander, and Nationwide all give indicative limits when you use their eligibility checkers. There may be others, but they are the ones that stand out off the top of my head.

Your score isn't important, it's a marketing gimmick. You'll see thread after thread here of people complaining about their score going down, or having a perfect score of '1000' and not being able to get a mobile phone. Only you see it. It can be an 'indicator' of your creditworthiness at best, but more importantly, and what's happening is that your history is being analysed, not your made up score.

If your balance of £4k has been there for a while, and it's close to the credit limit, and you've been making minimum payments, that potentially can count against you for any new credit applications.

Do you have other credit cards with zero balances? Or balances close to their limits? Do you ever pay in full - or only ever minimum payments?

Then there's all the other stuff like are you on the electoral roll, how long have you been at your address, are you employed or self-employed, home-owner or rented - the list of criteria when it comes to credit is a long one.

It'll be your history that influences future credit offers.

Saria

Thanks for your reply.

The credit limit on the Virgin balance transfer card is £7400, but I never reached that limit. I've been making payments higher than the minimum payment, with my payments varying between £200 and £50 depending on what I could afford that month. 

I've been on the electoral roll for a number of years, lived in our house for 6, am a home-owner with a mortgage, full-time employment... 

This is the only debt I have on a card (not counting my loan and mortgage of course), I have a purchase of £100 on a Lloyds card from last month but I always make sure I pay those off. I think I have 3 old cards that were used for balance transfers in the past: 1 Santander, 1 Barclays and 1 Lloyds. They are just sitting there, I am not sure whether I should close them or not. 

cymruchris

Saria said:

 I think I have 3 old cards that were used for balance transfers in the past: 1 Santander, 1 Barclays and 1 Lloyds. They are just sitting there, I am not sure whether I should close them or not. 

What sort of credit limits do you have on them - and what's your overall available credit? And annual household income? (Give rough figures if you want)

If you have a Lloyds card already that's not being used - run the Halifax eligibility checker - it's the same group - so if you have positive history with one part of the group - you might be successful on another brand within the family as it were.

Saria

cymruchris said:

Saria said:

 I think I have 3 old cards that were used for balance transfers in the past: 1 Santander, 1 Barclays and 1 Lloyds. They are just sitting there, I am not sure whether I should close them or not. 

What sort of credit limits do you have on them - and what's your overall available credit? And annual household income? (Give rough figures if you want)

If you have a Lloyds card already that's not being used - run the Halifax eligibility checker - it's the same group - so if you have positive history with one part of the group - you might be successful on another brand within the family as it were.

Seems I have a total credit limit of £27,200 spread over all my different cards, £4350 is currently used (16%) on the Virgin card: 
Lloyds Normal Credit Card: £4500
Lloyds Balance Transfer: £7000
Santander Balance Transfer: £4300
Barclaycard Balance Transfer: £4000
Virgin Balance Transfer: £7400

So a very high limit which I'm not using, which is why I think I should close some. Lloyds is my main provider so I would keep the £4500 card with them.

Our household income is probably around £60,000, partner is self-employed. 

I just had a quick check and Halifax said I'd be pre-approved for a possible £4000 limit, so I will check that out properly tonight. It does have a fee but it seems 0% fee cards are almost non-existent now anyway.

cymruchris

You have a reasonable limit and utilisation there - and yes - totally fee free transfers are very rare currently - so it's a case of finding the best option with the longest period and lowest fee. Remember that the offer quoted is also possibly not the one you get. They have to offer it to 51% of customers, but 49% might get a higher APR, shorter promo or higher fee - so keep an eye on the details.

If you're not using your Barclaycard, close it - then you can re-apply for a new one in 6 months. (Barclaycard do sometimes have offers buried in the app though - have you checked if there are any there?)

What are the ages of the cards? Keep the older accounts if practical, and close the more recent accounts. Length of account opening is a stability factor some banks like.

It's good to have a healthy limit available on your files - so don't go closing everything down, that can have a short term negative impact on your history (even though you're doing it for the right reasons.

I'm in the rythym now of applying for a card - getting it - closing a card - as I'm improving what cards I have, the offers, the credit limits etc. I recently applied for the Halifax card (I don't bank with the Lloyds group) and got an £8k limit - then closed my Santander at £3k and my Vanquis (from long ago) at £3.5k.

DullGreyGuy

cymruchris said:

Saria said:

As for the title, I assume you usually can't tell? 

I have a balance of around £4000 I need to transfer as my Virgin offer is ending in November. However I am struggling to find any good deals at the moment. I have a Natwest account (simply used to get their switching offer, don't actually use it) so thought I would check in their app for the 14-month balance card, but they denied me. 

But when I tried on the MSE eligibility checker and checked offers on Clearscore, I was pre-approved (95%) for some cards, including Natwest. The useful thing is it told me with Natwest how much I could possibly get, however this ranged between £850 and £2250 depending on the website I used. 

A few other cards popped up like M&S, but none of them actually tell you what you might get. Which makes it difficult to try to shift my debt if I don't know what I will get. Do you only find out after getting approved?

Also, why might I be getting denied for credit cards? My credit score on Clearscore is really high (900-something out of 1000), I never had a missed payment. I do have a car loan with Lloyds now, so maybe that's affecting it? I also have some old credit cards that are sitting unused, would it be best to close these?
If I apply for a card and get rejected, will that have a negative effect on my score?

I'm a bit worried at the moment about how to transfer this debt to be honest. Any advice is appreciated!

Some providers will give an indicated credit limit on a soft search directly on their own websites. Don't use comparison sites like MSE's and others, as they are 'guessing' at best your eligibility. They don't have the intricate knowledge of exactly what each card provider is looking for, and uses data in a different way to estimate your chance of success against others in a similar position to yourself.

Whilst I would normally agree with this the one carve out I'd add which is ClearScore who "guarantee" both acceptance and the limits with some providers. Not read the T&Cs to see how strong that guarantee really is (hence the "") however to date each application has resulted in both acceptance and the limit offered. In one case the lenders own checker had said the application would be declined but it was accepted via ClearScore and similarly in another case a better APR was applied (loan) than the lenders own site indicated 

Naomim

Have you checked if the cards you have that aren't carrying a balance don't have any offers available to you?

martinbainbridge1975

take a look in your lloyds online account, there may be some offers on the account, I also found when I called to close a card they offered me a balance transfer while I was on the phone

Marchitiello

As others have said, before applying for a new card and closing some of your existing ones (that won’t have an impact on the short term anyway), check that you do not have existing offers on those existing cards. Lloyds group (Lloyds, Halifax, BoS, MBNA) usually do for me but also have the highest one off fee of all (4.5-5%). BarclayCard on the other end have sensible length and fee one off fee offer (2.99%).

PS: not all credit providers will consider household income, and thus if the £27k overall limit across your cards is all on your name, and that is closer or more than 100% of your individual income, that may be a problem. However, if on the other hand what you presented is indeed shared between your partner and yourself (so I am guessing, some cards in your name and some in your partner’s name, the Car Loan (is in actual car loan/balloon payment and those a secured debt?) on one of your names etc), it may not be that bad.