Too old for Card ? Want to put car balance on it

PhilAJ

Hi All

I'm 71 years old, and haven't really used C Cards for a long time - but do have a near perfect Credit rating & History. My wife's car is coming to the end of a PCP contract, with £7000 to pay in order to keep it - so I thought about getting a 0% interest card and putting this balance on it, and paying off over a year or so. 

However - I've applied for a couple of cards and been rejected straight away. We do have a household income of over £30k from pensions and a little work I still do - so surely it's not that. We could even increase the income if we needed to as we are doing drawdown from the pensions, but currently don't need it. Is this because of my age? 

Anyone know of a provider that isn't 'ageist' or may be be able to help.?

Thanks 
Phil

Phoenix72

First things first. Will the finance company take a credit card payment? Would be surprised if they did.

TadleyBaggie

Phoenix72 said:

First things first. Will the finance company take a credit card payment? Would be surprised if they did.

Last time I did this, they would only accept a bank transfer, even a debit card wasn't acceptable.

Mark_d

Am am surprised that you've been declined for credit cards.  It could be due to age or it could be that the credit card companies don't think they'll make money from you.

Since your finances are comfortable and you can access money as and when you want, maybe a 12 month interest free period isn't critical.  Could you make the £7k payment on an existing credit card and get cashback/Avios points?

PhilAJ

Phoenix72 - Not sure yet as I haven't got one to offer. If not then no harm done - but I'd have a card.

eskbanker

PhilAJ said:

...haven't really used C Cards for a long time - but do have a near perfect Credit rating & History. My wife's car is coming to the end of a PCP contract, with £7000 to pay in order to keep it - so I thought about getting a 0% interest card and putting this balance on it, and paying off over a year or so...

I doubt that the issue is age but suspect that lack of credit card history will be more of an issue, so even if you succeed with any applications for premium products such as 0% cards, the prospects of getting a meaningful credit limit anywhere near £7K must be minimal, but you could do worse than try some eligibility checkers:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/eligibility/credit-cards/search/

Phoenix72

PhilAJ said:

Phoenix72 - Not sure yet as I haven't got one to offer. If not then no harm done - but I'd have a card.

Yes, but all those hard searches won't help if you end up looking for a loan to pay it off, so maybe some harm done.

badmemory

I doubt it is your age as I am older & have a lower iincome & one cc has just put up my credit limit again & they both keep offering me 0%.

CliveOfIndia

The problem with this plan is that, as has been previously mentioned, the finance company is unlikely to accept payment by credit card.

But even if they do, then the card provider would almost certainly treat it as a cash transaction, meaning you'd be clobbered by a cash advance fee, also it wouldn't qualify for any promotional 0% interest rate.  You also wouldn't be able to use a Balance Transfer card.

A Money Transfer card may be a possibility.  But there's usually a fee for doing the transfer, plus you'd need to make sure you can repay the card in full when the promotional rate expires - there's no guarantee you'd be able to transfer any remaining balance to another card.