2 x Capital one owned cards - consolidate to one?

saintscouple

Hey,

So checking my clearscore and i get preapproved for the post office credit card owned by capital one which i applied and got accepted for with a £300 limit.

I already have a capital one credit card with a £200 limit.

My question is when the post office one arrives and is activated, can i close the captial one card, and if so will the £200 limit be applied to the post office one, making it a £500 limit?

I read somewhere here about the capital one trick of getting an additional card and then combining, but can´t seem to find it anymore. 

I always use less than 20% of my limit, and pay in full each month. 

Thank you in advance for what is my best approach with the aiming of improving my credit score and getting higher credit limits. 

Mark_d

I think it's unlikely they transfer your limit, giving you a credit limit of 500, but you can certainly ask when you're calling to cancel your capital one card.   In my opinion a good way to get a high credit limit is to stick with the same card for many years and get them to review your credit limit every year or so.

CliveOfIndia

saintscouple said:

My question is when the post office one arrives and is activated, can i close the captial one card, and if so will the £200 limit be applied to the post office one, making it a £500 limit?

The limit won't be applied to the new card automatically, but there's no harm in contacting them to ask if they'll raise the limit on the new card.  As a general rule, most lenders (especially the sub-prime ones) will tend to offer you an increased limit after you've been using the card responsibly over a period of several months.  But yes, there's nothing lost by asking.

saintscouple said:

I always use less than 20% of my limit, and pay in full each month.

Don't worry too much about restricting yourself to only using 20% of the limit.  As long as you always repay in full every month without fail, it's pretty much irrelevant how much of your available credit you're using, despite what the CRAs would like you to believe.  Obviously don't go over your credit limit, and never use the card for buying stuff you won't be able to afford to repay at the end of the month.

saintscouple said:

Thank you in advance for what is my best approach with the aiming of improving my credit score and getting higher credit limits. 

Ignore your score, it's nothing more than a meaningless marketing gimmick.  What's important is your credit history - you need to show a pattern of responsible borrowing and repaying what you owe.  To this end, all you need to do is use the card regularly for planned, budgeted spending (just using it for things like food and petrol will do the trick), and always repay in full when you get the statement.  Ideally, set up a Direct Debit for the full statement balance, then you'll never forget (it can be especially useful if you're away on holiday, for example).

Spend, repay in full, rinse & repeat, that's all there is to it.  You'll likely find you're offered a credit limit increase after something like a year or so.

And once you've built up a decent credit history, you can, if you wish, look at applying for a more mainstream card (which may be attractive if you can get one that offers rewards for your day-to-day spending, whether that's cashback, airmiles, points of some description, whatever).

saintscouple

Thank you so much, this is great advice, a real help to me.
Really appreciate it.
I will ignore the 20% and just ensure I spend what I can afford to repay in full.
I have set up a direct debit on all cards for yhr minimum amount just as safety net.

elasto

I have done the capital one trick twice: I open a second card then phone up asking them to close it and transfer the
limit to the first card.

The second time I did it it only gave me a 20% boost in total credit so I haven't bothered to do it a third time.

I would agree with the last poster: Take your time, build your history, then try your hand with another bank - perhaps the one you have your current account with. That was who gave me my biggest initial credit limit when I was first starting out.

Edit: And, yes, don't restrict yourself to only 20% of your limit. I have cards I push to 80% of their limits, pay them off in full, and they have subsequently given me the biggest increases.

gd55

I have consolidated two Capital One cards. On two occasions in fact. I simply messaged them from the website, said I wanted to consolidate the credit limits on to one card, and specified which card to close and which to stay open. Done without any questions or fuss in a few days.

saintscouple

gd55 said:

I have consolidated two Capital One cards. On two occasions in fact. I simply messaged them from the website, said I wanted to consolidate the credit limits on to one card, and specified which card to close and which to stay open. Done without any questions or fuss in a few days.

Thanks again, finally got round to messaging them yesterday and they messaged back to say they can´t do it whilst i have pending transactions - but once they are cleared to let them know and they will consolidate.