MBNA or Egg Money?

nightwatchman

I decide to start stoozing six months ago and at that time four credit searches was done on my behalf. Halifax had accepted me however MBNA and Egg Money declined me. Another search was performed by Abbey when I start banking with them.
Now the six months are nearly over and all the search records will soon be erased.
However I want to have the minimal amount of applications. I don’t want to fall in the trap of applications and rejections.
I was wonder what will be better to do.
Ok Egg will be very useful in the long run as I will be able to SBT from credit cards that I may obtain in the future. However MBNA is minimal hassle and can be transferred directly on my current account.

Also
The recent credit crunch and lack of a long credit history on my behalf had made it hard for me to get a CC with a good limit (Halifax gave me only £1,500). However I was wondering if my chances to be accepted and given a decent credit limit were better if I was applying for a CC that is owned by any of the banks that I am dealing with already.
Any ideas on that?
I am banking with Halifax and I already have 15 months 0% on purchases card. I am also banking with ICICI (good savings acc) A&L, Abbey, & West Bromwich BS (the last three have very good regular savers).

Thanks for any advice.

CannyJock

My Experian report lists the credit searches done in the past 12 months, do you mean that the impact of the previous searches will be reduced now the 6 months are nearly up?

Have you looked at an up to date version of your credit report? It should show a history of payments on the Halifax card that will count in your favour. Is that the only credit card that you have showing on your credit report?

And I'll assume that you're on the electroral register and have read the article on how to boost your "credit score".

I'd be tempted to say that if you've not had any searches in the past 6 months then there's no reason not to apply for both, I'd do the Virgin Money application first, then the Egg Money. If the Egg Money is for stoozing then I'd ask them to reduce the credit limit to £ 500 if they give you more.

On the bank accounts you have, do they offer overdrafts? If they do and you don't need them I'd be tempted to reduce the overdraft limit on the "extra" accounts and just keep the overdraft on your main account that your bills come from as a safety net.

Cashback Kings and Quidco are both offering £ 10 for Virgin Money applications.

Other comment would be that if you've now been banking with the Halifax for 6 months then you might be able to phone them to ask for an increase in your credit limit if it's for the 0% purchase card so you can extend your slow stooze for the full 15 months? They'll probably do a search if you do, so I'd leave that to last.

NickX

This is a tricky one, and the answer is going to be down to personal preference, but IMO I would go for the MBNA card.

The reason is that as you say MBNA will transfer direct to your current account without the need for a mule card. If you go for Egg, you will also need to apply for another with a 0% BT deal, hence 2 applications which creates more risk of rejection.

Also MBNA are known for pretty decent credit limits. You could always apply for Egg Money once you have got the MBNA stooze up and running.

Hope this helps.

nightwatchman

Quote from CannyJock
My Experian report lists the credit searches done in the past 12 months, do you mean that the impact of the previous searches will be reduced now the 6 months are nearly up?

Five months ago I ask for a credit report from Experian and my MBNA application was mentioned there. Last week I ask for a credit report from Equifax and there was no trace of my MBNA application. Also approximately three months ago Abbey try to sell me their card, I declined their offer as I had too many credit searches done on my behalf. I explain that to the sales person and then she recommended me to apply six months after my last application as any previous searches will have been erased. So I can only assume that at list Equifax is not storing credit searches for more than six months. If Experian is storing credit searches for twelve months I can not say. Please if someone is better informed let us know.


My total (unused) overdraft facility from HALIFAX, Abbey and A&L is £4.000 I think that I should reduce it somewhat.
According to this http://www.stoozing.com/0fees.htm there are many more cards with SBT capability that I did not knew. In this list are included Abbey and A&L which are of a special interest to me as I have current accounts with them.
How this SBT work? Are similar to MBNA in the way to transferring funds to your current account, or can be used as real mule cards like Egg Money?
Whatever the answer is, if I can use ABBEY and A&L to BT with my current accounts then there is no point to apply for Egg Money as I can benefit from them straight away without wasting an application.
However I had a quick read through the T&C and I did not notice any mention of transferring to your current account, has stoozing.com got it wrong?

YorkshireBoy

nightwatchman wrote: »

Last week I ask for a credit report from Equifax and there was no trace of my MBNA application.

In my experience, MBNA only search Experian for the initial application, but they seem to search Equifax only for credit limit increases.

I explain that to the sales person and then she recommended me to apply six months after my last application as any previous searches will have been erased. So I can only assume that at list Equifax is not storing credit searches for more than six months.

No. You should assume the Abbey "sales person" doesn't know what they're talking about!

If Experian is storing credit searches for twelve months I can not say. Please if someone is better informed let us know.

In my experience, backed up by reading their respective websites, all credit card search records are held for 12 months.

My total (unused) overdraft facility from HALIFAX, Abbey and A&L is £4.000 I think that I should reduce it somewhat.

I agree, if they're all reported.

According to this http://www.stoozing.com/0fees.htm there are many more cards with SBT capability that I did not knew. In this list are included Abbey and A&L which are of a special interest to me as I have current accounts with them.

All MBNA cards are SBT cards. This includes A&L, Sony, and many more. The Abbey card was run by MBNA (and some older cards still are), but even the new Santander run cards are reported to have SBT capability. Since the A&L card is underwritten by MBNA, your A&L account management will have no impact on acceptance/credit limit offered IMHO. Abbey will obviously be different, now that they run their own cards.

How this SBT work? Are similar to MBNA in the way to transferring funds to your current account, or can be used as real mule cards like Egg Money?
Whatever the answer is, if I can use ABBEY and A&L to BT with my current accounts then there is no point to apply for Egg Money as I can benefit from them straight away without wasting an application.

Egg Money doesn't charge a (S)BT fee, whereas MBNA run cards (and the Egg Card Visa) do. This means that anything other than a no-fee deal on the donor card will produce a loss.

However I had a quick read through the T&C and I did not notice any mention of transferring to your current account...

They don't (with the exception of a few MBNA cards) openly advertise the fact.

...has stoozing.com got it wrong?

Is that a serious question? :rolleyes:

nightwatchman

Quote YorkshireBoy
Is that a serious question? :rolleyes:

Uhh! No is not.

Quote YorkshireBoy
All MBNA cards are SBT cards. This includes A&L, Sony, and many more. The Abbey card was run by MBNA (and some older cards still are), but even the new Santander run cards are reported to have SBT capability. Since the A&L card is underwritten by MBNA, your A&L account management will have no impact on acceptance/credit limit offered IMHO. Abbey will obviously be different, now that they run their own cards.

This is very good news for me (at list I think it is) as I don’t have an Egg Money as yet.

Quote YorkshireBoy
Egg Money doesn't charge a (S)BT fee, whereas MBNA run cards (and the Egg Card Visa) do. This means that anything other than a no-fee deal on the donor card will produce a loss.

Yes I see. However it seems logical to start with say an Abbey and a MBNA card for the moment and in six months time to reapply for the Egg Money.
The reason that I am in a hurry, (and I whish to delay the Egg) is that I need to top up the new ISA as soon as possible so as to get the max benefit of some limited duration bonuses.

nightwatchman

Bahh!!! Declined again. Honestly I can not understand what is wrong with my credit rating?
I applied yesterday for the Virgin MBNA and not only they said no, they also add insult to the injury by recommending to apply for an Aqua card on 35.9%APR.
I will try today to apply to Abbey for a card. If that not work I will give up.
Please wish me luck.

nightwatchman

Do you recon that my postcode has something to do with my inability to be accepted for a CC?
I live on the borderline of Ladywood Birmingham and according to the Daly Mail (see here http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=556769&in_page_id=1770)
Ladywood is one of the ten areas in UK most in danger to have financial problems.
Any advice?

Steve1981

nightwatchman wrote: »

Do you recon that my postcode has something to do with my inability to be accepted for a CC?
I live on the borderline of Ladywood Birmingham and according to the Daly Mail (see here http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=556769&in_page_id=1770)
Ladywood is one of the ten areas in UK most in danger to have financial problems.
Any advice?

Maybe, I know of several insurers who offer instalments/credit based on the postcode so if neighbours are seen as a risk people may get tarred with the same brush, a common senario is army barracks, due to people having lived there before defaulting on payments and moving out of they only to get the option of lump some only.

nightwatchman

My case is getting from bad to worst.
I opened today what I thought to be junk mail and I discover that it was demands for unpaid debts belonging to two different tenants living here not so long ago (my house used to a be multiple occupancy).
From what I manage to figure out they left behind approximately £15,000 debt.
Now I worry that soon debt collectors will start knocking my door.

Steve1981

nightwatchman wrote: »

My case is getting from bad to worst.
I opened today what I thought to be junk mail and I discover that it was demands for unpaid debts belonging to two different tenants living here not so long ago (my house used to a be multiple occupancy).
From what I manage to figure out they left behind approximately £15,000 debt.
Now I worry that soon debt collectors will start knocking my door.

you need to start getting evidence together if you can, and start contacting them with details of when these people moved out, a pain in the backside but well worth getting sorted sooner rather than later