Balance transfer limit pretty useless

Ann_robins

I took Experian’s advice and applied for a balance transfer account with MBNA. I was accepted then told the limit on the transfer is £500. No good to me, with a need to transfer £4,600. How do I find out how much a CC will allow me to transfer before committing to an application and how do I stop MBNA setting me up with a useless account?

la531983

Basically you cant, the "eligibility checkers" wont give you an 100% accurate picture as no hard search is being done.

It could be the drawbridges have come down, have you a plan to settle the debt?

DullGreyGuy

Some issuers (eg NatWest) will say via their own soft-search facility what the estimated limit will be but thats still subject to the final checks via the formal application.

cymruchris

Once company that offers such a service is MBNA. If you go direct through their website rather than going through some third party link. Quite a few providers will now give an 'estimated' credit limit after a soft search directly on their websites - but it's not guaranteed that's what you'll get - as when they run the hard search, they see more data, run the numbers, and although in many cases you will get the advised limit, there are also times when you don't - because they've seen something in the data that warrants a lower limit.

From memory - and there's likely more:

Santander

Nationwide

MBNA
Lloyds
Halifax

Natwest

RBS

all give provisional limits before a hard search.

MBNA is usually generous with its initial limits - so if you've got £500 - you might have to delve into your credit history to understand why.

The days of willy nilly applying for cards and getting high limits at the drop of a hat are gone.

How many cards do you have now? What's your total available credit limit as a percentage of your salary? Have you missed any payments? Do you only make the minimum payment every month? Are you close to your limits?

All of these will have an impact on how lenders see you.

EssexHebridean

Remember, that £500 will be money that you are not paying interest on, so it may be worth taking that transfer, shifting what you can to it, then setting the monthly payment to a little above the minimum and letting it run while you focus on making any overpayments you can to the higher interest bearing balance elsewhere. Then after 3 months, have another look to see if you can make another balance transfer and get a bit more moved over to 0%. 

Ultimately though, those above suggesting that it might be that the road has run out on transfers for you may well have a point - it's definitely something you need to look at.