Need help to sort out credit card dilemma

sparkiemalarkie

We are heading off to Australia soon for 4+ weeks.
When we arrive I will need to pay the balance of our accommodation costs - £5000+
This need to be paid in AU$

Originally I had booked somewhere else that wanted payment in UK£ so, in the last 2 weeks, I increased my credit limit on my Avios Barclay Card to £7,500

However, now, I have to settle in AU$ I have just increased my credit limit on my Halifax Clarity cc to £6,500 - (this took quite a bit of negotiating.) The hotel charge a fee of 1.2% for cc payments.

I have just seen the LLoyds Ultra Credit card with 1% cashback on purchases and wondering if I could apply for this too. ( would cashback work on hotel bookings?)

And - to top it off I would like to open a Virgin credit card 0% transfer fees and 0% interest for 12 months - and transfer the cost of the holiday to Virgin to pay off over the next year.

I am a pensioner with quite a small income - but with a good amount of savings.
I don't 'do' credit cards normally except for supermarket shopping which is always settled.

Any advice / suggestions would be appreciated

tia

sx

Isthisforreal99

Lloyds and Halifax are part of the same group so the fact you had to 'persuade' them to increase your Halifax limit does not bode well for a Lloyds Ultra applicatiion.

As for a Virgin application - how much is your 'small income'? Your savings mean nothing to a credit card company. With a now £14k credit limit avaiilable to you over 2 cards and a small income I wouldn't fancy your chances but no harm in trying.

sparkiemalarkie

The small income is about £28000 pa
I realise that my credit limit has suddenly jumped, but wasn't sure if the fact that it is all unused at the moment made a difference.
I don't know if it would harm my chances with the Virgin 0% interest card if I got turned down by LLoyds.

Sadly the Barclays Avios card limit is useless to me now as I won't be using it abroad due to the fees.

Thanks for your comments

sx

Isthisforreal99

Having credit available, even if unused, means the chances of approval elsewhere are reduced, or at the very least means a lower credit limit will be given. Personally I wouldn't apply for the Lloyds but go for the Virgin balance transfer card.

SiliconChip

My financial situation is similar to yours (pensions around £25K plus a lot of savings), I applied for and received a Lloyds Ultra card but the credit limit is only £1000 so if you got the same it wouldn't cover the full hotel bill anyway.

born_again

2 credit increases in the last 2 weeks to 50% of your annual income will be a major red flag to lenders.

As said above Halifax is going to fully become Lloyds soon & already part of the same group. So steer well clear of going there.

sparkiemalarkie

Just a thought -
I don't need the Barclays Avios credit increase any more.
If I reduced this back to £2,000 - the original credit limit - would it help my case for the Virgin 0% Credit card?

sx

tom192

With my Lloyds Ultra, I can spend and then once the payment has processed ie not pending I can then submit a manual payment to clear some/all of the balance and then continue spending, can you not just do this on one of your cards in order to boost the amount of credit you have available? (Don't submit extra payments until you have spends on the card though, you can't be in a positive balance)

sparkiemalarkie

Thanks I have done this in the past, but I need a big credit balance to pay for our hotel rooms.
I think I have decided to stay with Halifax Clarity in the hope that I might be able to get a 0% Virgin card and transfer most of my balance across to pay off over 12 months

sx

Clive_Woody

Is there a particular reason why you want to use a Credit card for payment? You could use a regular Debit card and a reasonable number are fee free (see link below). Check your current provider and if that isn't suitable you could open a bank account that offers a fee free debit card and transfer funds into that account for the payment rather than chasing lots of credit card applications and hoping for a suitable limit.

To answer your question, yes you can use the Lloyds credit card for foreign currency hotel payment and still get cash back (I just did this in Amsterdam).

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/travel-credit-cards/

sparkiemalarkie

So far I haven't opened any new credit cards. I have increased the credit limit on the 2 that I already have.

I chose to increase my Barclays Avios card limit to pay for the first hotel- it wanted payment in GB£ - however I decided against that hotel, before paying, and now going to a hotel that wants paying in AU$.
The Barclay card has high FX rates so I then increased my credit card limit on my Halifax clarity.

I will not be applying for the LLoyds credit card - I was tempted because the hotel charges a 1.2% fees on card payments - thought the 1% cash back would offset that somewhat. The hotel will accept bank transfers or cc I understand - I want the section 75 protection

I have debit cards that are fee free for over seas purchases - Virgin Money for example - so I am in a good position - but I understand that it is cc or bank transfer or a mixture of both for room payments.

I'm looking at the 0% virgin credit card as I like the idea of my money staying in my ISA for as long as possible.

sx