CC application advice

calibrax

At the end of this month, I will have no defaults showing on my credit file, nothing but "green 1"'s on my other accounts (i.e no missed or late payments), and the only negative thing on there is a £3k CCJ from 2004 (which is showing as settled in Aug 2007).

I would like a CC with about £2000 limit, but I don't want to apply to CC companies if they are going to automatically turn me down over a settled CCJ... has anyone here with a settled CCJ been successful in getting a 'normal' credit card, and if so, which CC company did you get it from?

YorkshireBoy

calibrax wrote: »

...nothing but "green 1"'s on my other accounts (i.e no missed or late payments)...

"green 1's" signify payments are one month in arrears, don't they? An Experian report will show "green o's" if payments are up to date.

...and the only negative thing on there is a £3k CCJ from 2004 (which is showing as settled in Aug 2007).

I believe the CCJ will remain on your report for 6 years, meaning it'll be 2010 before it falls off.

Unless any company wants to take a 'chance' on you, I think you'll find it difficult to get mainstream, or possibly any, credit cards until the CCJ falls off.

Maybe your own bank will be the best people to approach?

calibrax

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

"green 1's" signify payments are one month in arrears, don't they? An Experian report will show "green o's" if payments are up to date.I believe the CCJ will remain on your report for 6 years, meaning it'll be 2010 before it falls off.

Unless any company wants to take a 'chance' on you, I think you'll find it difficult to get mainstream, or possibly any, credit cards until the CCJ falls off.

Maybe your own bank will be the best people to approach?

Yep, I meant green 0's, sorry! Doh!

The CCJ is satisfied, so I would have thought I should be able to get a credit card from somewhere? unfortunately my own bank (Halifax) says specifically on the application form "I confirm that I have not had any CCJs for non-payment of debt" or words to that effect - no mention of satisfied or unsatisfied, so if I applied for that, I would be stating that I don't have any, which is not true.

YorkshireBoy

calibrax wrote: »

The CCJ is satisfied, so I would have thought I should be able to get a credit card from somewhere?

You caused a lender to take you to court to get a judgment. It then took you another 3 years to get the CCJ satisfied. I don't wish to be 'hard' but CC providers are not exactly going to be queuing up to lend to you again so soon.

That said, maybe you could approach the 'credit-builder' card providers such as Vanquis, Aqua, Barclaycard Initial, and Capital One Classic to see what their view on recently satisfied 4 year-old CCJ's is.

calibrax

Ok, I do take your point on that... and I accept it's not going to be easy. But the point of the thread is to find out which providers HAVE issued cards under similar circumstances, so that I don't waste my time making futile applications, and making my record worse in the process.

So, to repeat my original question... has anyone here with a settled CCJ been successful in getting a 'normal' credit card, and if so, which CC company did you get it from?

calibrax

anyone?????

speedbird1973

if you have a CCJ and are recovering from defaults.. why on earth do you want a credit card????

GeoThermal

Capital One might but they may only give you their card for those with poor credit history in which case the interest is horrendous at something like 35%.

calibrax

speedbird1973 wrote: »

if you have a CCJ and are recovering from defaults.. why on earth do you want a credit card????

Because I am now completely solvent. My situation is very different from how it was - all my defaults are paid off and cleared from my credit report, and the CCJ has been paid in full (it will clear from my report in Jan 2010). I am on a very good salary, and I now have savings... and after paying all my outoings each month I have around £500 left. Believe me, it's not been easy sorting out my debt situation (at the peak in 2004 I had around £22k of debt), but it's been worth it.

Having a credit card with a £2k limit would actually save me money - at the moment, if I travel abroad for work I have to take money from my savings account to pay for hotels etc, and then pay it back in to my savings when I claim it back from my employer, losing out on interest in the process.

I have a Capital One classic card which I took out a couple of years ago as part of the process of sorting out my credit - it has a £200 limit and I use it each month and pay off the balance in full. I have never gone over my limit, and never made a late payment, but for some reason they will not increase the limit.

The interest rate is irrelevant really, as it would be paid off in full each month anyway.