Best Balance Transfers Discussion Area

Moggles_2

therandomsurfer wrote: »

Had an Alliance & Leicester MBNA card which I cancelled in April. Any idea how long I need to wait before I will be likely to be accepted for a Virgin MBNA card?

FYI, and anyone else reading, cancelling your Alliance & Leicester card was not a good move, IMO.

MBNA is one of just three lenders that allow you to route money through your bank account at balance transfer rates. With its market-leading, follow-on offers, this card was worth keeping in your deck, IMO.

What's more, once the A&L balance was paid off in full, you could have applied for your Virgin card by phone and then asked to transfer all but a token amount of the A&L credit limit over to the new card. This not only safeguards your credit limit, you're doubling your chances of future offers by holding two cards with MBNA

As you know, some lenders will not consider applications from former cardholders for various periods following closure. Others like MBNA accept applicants more or less straight away.

poppyred

bit of a newbie on the credit cards i'm afarid.....but any help would be great, i've been with the Co-op for years and ashamed to admit but i don't even know what my APR is... i'm wanting to get a grip on my credit card and was wondering wether to transfer the balance to Virgin 0%.

My balance is currently £7100 it says on my statement interest 1.590% per month and i get approx £110.00 interest charged each month, my minium monthly payment is £146.00 per month, but i try and pay £300, the balance just doesn't seem to be moving very fast....

if i apply for the Virgin card do i have to make sure the BT has been done by end of June or should i go for a low rate for life ?? not gonna be able to pay more than £300 per month so will still not be cleared by the end of the 0%.

Any help would be great, really confused..sorry

Moggles_2

poppyred wrote: »

If i apply for the Virgin card, do i have to make sure the BT has been done by end of June?

No, currently the 0% rate applies to transfers made in the first 60 days.

... or should i go for a low rate-for-life card?

There's no perfect solution that suits everyone. Have you estimated how long it will take to clear the £7100 debt in full?

Why not plug some numbers into this credit card calculator?

http://www.whatsthecost.com/creditcard.aspx

You can then estimate the time it would take to clear the balance using cards charged at different interest rates. You can also see the effect of increasing your payments by a few pounds

therandomsurfer

Moggles wrote: »

FYI, and anyone else reading, cancelling your Alliance & Leicester card was not a good move, IMO.

MBNA is one of just three lenders that allow you to route money through your bank account at balance transfer rates. With its market-leading, follow-on offers, this card was worth keeping in your deck, IMO.

Oh no! I cancelled it thinking I would never get accepted for a Virgin 0% card if I had another MBNA card, which I'm sure I've read elsewhere on MSE.

Moggles wrote: »

What's more, once the A&L balance was paid off in full, you could have applied for your Virgin card by phone and then asked to transfer all but a token amount of the A&L credit limit over to the new card. This not only safeguards your credit limit, you're doubling your chances of future offers by holding two cards with MBNA

Thanks for sharing this - wish I'd known about it a couple of months ago!

Moggles wrote: »

As you know, some lenders will not consider applications from former cardholders for various periods following closure. Others like MBNA accept applicants more or less straight away.

OK so if I applied for a Virgin 0% card my recent ownership of the A&L card won't get in the way? If this is the case I'd rather try for this than going for the HSBC or Halifax one which I was previously considering! It's all so confusing :huh:

Moggles_2

therandomsurfer wrote: »

I cancelled it thinking I would never get accepted for a Virgin 0% card if I had another MBNA card, which I'm sure I've read elsewhere on MSE.

IME, and from feedback here, MBNA doesn't mind customers holding more than one card. I have held three at once.

Note: if there's a balance on your current MBNA card, particularly if it's still charged at special promotion rates, you can certainly be turned down or handed a lowish credit limit by MBNA.

That said, if there are no transactions on your existing card, this lender will switch your credit limit from the unused card to give you a higher limit on the new, active one

Moggles_2

therandomsurfer wrote: »

So if I applied for a Virgin 0% card my recent ownership of the A&L card won't get in the way?

No experience personally but, from feedback here, MBNA accepts applications from former cardholders more or less straight away.

Very best
M

therandomsurfer

Thanks again Moggles.

BTW I found where I'd read that Virgin won't accept you if you already have an MBNA card - it says so on Martin's Best Balance Transfers article! - under Restrictions: "acceptance unlikely if you already have an MBNA card"!

If experience and anecdotal evidence is saying otherwise, maybe its worth contacting Martin to get this updated?

Moggles_2

therandomsurfer wrote: »

I found where I'd read that Virgin won't accept you if you already have an MBNA card - it says so on Martin's Best Balance Transfers article! - under Restrictions: "acceptance unlikely if you already have an MBNA card"! If experience and anecdotal evidence is saying otherwise, maybe its worth contacting Martin to get this updated?

Well spotted. Also, in the *Best Balance Transfer* article, it states:

... many people already have the [Virgin] card, or one of its sister cards from the MBNA stable (inc. A&L). If that's you, you may be rejected or given a lower credit limit.

- all of which is true but, to clarify, I would add:

if there's a balance on your current MBNA card, particularly when it's still charged at special promotion rates.

So many forum users have reported failure or a low limit in these circumstances.

therandomsurfer

Just applied for a Virgin card online and got rejected immediately! :eek:

Bit scared now. Does that mean they've done a credit search already (it was less than 10 seconds)? Should I now wait before trying to apply elsewhere?

Can't understand it, I've done an Experian Credit Expert report from the free month's trial and it seemed ok, doesn't report any missed payments in the past year and my total debts including overdrafts come to around £6k, which is 66% of my available credit...

What can I do? I have a few interest free debts running out in the next 4-6 weeks and I was kind of relying on being able to transfer them to a new card...

therandomsurfer

Doh! Just realised that where it asked me for my monthly rent payment in the form I went and put in the full amount for the whole household - but I only pay half of this - could this be the reason? If so, can I try again safely?