Applying For More Than One Credit Card in a day

simon27_2

Hi
I'm in a bit of a tricky position... 4 of the 5 credit cards I'm with have returned to there standard interest rates. So I need to apply for new credit. The reason why I didn't apply before the 0% finished is that I moved house and missed sending the electoral role form off and have just recently been put back on it.
My total debt on these cards is over £27000. . I would guess my chances of getting new credit with that amount of outstanding debt along with the credit crunch are slim. Before I throw the towel in and declare myself bankrupt I thought I would try and get a bit more breathing space.
Can anybody tell me if I apply for say 4 cards in one afternoon whether each credit company will be aware of the other companies searches on my credit file immediately.
The reason I was going to try this tactic is I read in a property book recently that the author raised lots of credit with different companies for deposits on buy-to-let properties in one afternoon. He says the reason to do it in one day is that the multiple searches won't show up on my credit file immediately.
Any idea if this is true?
Cheers Simon

hillendale

Just an idea but have you tried your existing credit card companies to see if they can offer you any repeat 0% deals , I have a virgin c/c and they have given me 0% deal 3 times now or may be try for a life of balance deal at around 6% .
Hope this helps

taless

When I was using the trial version of Experian's CreditExpert, I do notice that my previous searches are updated realtime. Equifax's Credit Reports are only updated daily.

Whether banks will see them in real time I'm not sure, perhaps someone more knowledgeable on this can provide some assistance.

Tr@cker

This is food for thought, it'd be in the card companies interests to give you a new deal if you're thinking of throwing the towel in perhaps you could suggest this to them.
By throwing the towel in i presume you mean bankruptcy. Its got to be worth a try but whether or not they'd see it that way i dont know.
I'd agree your chances of new credit with anyone else are slim.

GeorgeUK

I seriously doubt that would work, but i guess if you feel you have nothing to lose you could try it. If you only got 2 or even 1, then i would suggest fully clearing one of your other cards, then a few days later phone them up and ask if they will do a 0% offer for you. If they say no, phone again a few days later to cancel your account and hopefully at that point they will transfer you to someone who will try to keep your account open by offering a 0% offer - then repeat for the other cards.

Existing customers don't usually get another credit check done on them, so if your original idea doesn't work, you're still a long way from bankrupcy. I would suggest doing this for the accounts you have not defaulted on first though as they like to keep "good" customers.

simon27_2

Cheers for the advice guys... i guess as this is the last time I'm going to try applying for credit I might as well give it a go and apply for a few cards... or maybe going for one big bank loan to consolidate most of my debt is a better idea?

GeorgeUK

If you don't think a bank will give you a Credit card, why do you think they will give you a loan?

Might be worthwhile going over to the Debt Free Wannabe board and posting up a Statement of Affairs with all your income, expenditure and debts (with APR details).

If you are on a decent wage, you may still be able to juggle for a while or even ask to have one of the CCards you clear to be changed to a Life of Balance account which is a much lower interest rate. Thsi will give you more funds available to pay off the other cards and you can just keep asking for more cards every 3/4 months until you get turned down.

Have you defaulted on your cards yet?

This is a thread giving a basic SOA if you need a guide.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=107280

Might be worth trying as there are alot of good advisors on that board. You may be able to make savings in other areas too.

Stubbsy055

The moneysupermarket website have a smart search where yo can enter your details and it brings up cards and deals thatyou are likely to qualify without affecting your creit footprint. Certainly worked for me and was helpful.