Transfer credit limit ?

balks

Hi guys,

I am thinking of applying for a new credit card to do a balance transfer (probably the CapitalOne platinum w/ 2% fee)

For the past 10 yrs, i have been merrily using my HSBC credit card, and i think its about time i did a balance transfer of £3000.

My question is this ...
When i apply for a new card, what if they give me a low credit limit ?
Is it possible for me to transfer some of my HSBC credit limit (9600) to the capital one card ?
And then BT approx £3000 ?

I have tried searching the forums but the keywords "credit limit transfer" brings up a million and one results that so far havent seemed to have the answer.

Cheers
:beer:

YorkshireBoy

balks wrote:

Hi guys,

I am thinking of applying for a new credit card to do a balance transfer (probably the CapitalOne platinum w/ 2% fee)

For the past 10 yrs, i have been merrily using my HSBC credit card, and i think its about time i did a balance transfer of £3000.

My question is this ...
When i apply for a new card, what if they give me a low credit limit ?
Is it possible for me to transfer some of my HSBC credit limit (9600) to the capital one card ?
And then BT approx £3000 ?

I have tried searching the forums but the keywords "credit limit transfer" brings up a million and one results that so far havent seemed to have the answer.

Cheers
:beer:

I'm not sure I fully understand your requirements? Do you have £3K of interest bearing debt on the HSBC card that you'd like to move to a 0% card? Could you give some more detail so I can formulate an appropriate reply?

balks

Hi,

Sorry if my first message wasnt clear. Ive never done a BT before.

Yes, i have £3000 of interest bearing debt on my HSBC card
I would like to apply for a CapitalOne 0% BT card, and transfer all £3000 across.

But what if CapitalOne give me a credit limit of £2000 ?
Can i call them and say i have a 9600 limit with HSBC, and transfer some of the limit across ?

The reason i ask is because i remember Amex told my father he could transfer credit limits from other bank/store cards if he would like a higher limit on his amex.

Cheers

denys

balks wrote:

But what if CapitalOne give me a credit limit of £2000 ?
Can i call them and say i have a 9600 limit with HSBC, and transfer some of the limit across ?

no.

You can only ask them to match you current credit limit - not guaranteed to work. Currently only Co-op promises to match you highest credit limit with other providers (has to be VISA).

As to transfer of credit limits - it can be done only with cards from the same provider (not all) e.g. MBNA or in other cases within same product e.g. XXX bank visa to XXX bank mastercard.

grumbler

balks wrote:

I would like to apply for a CapitalOne 0% BT card, and transfer all £3000 across.

But what if CapitalOne give me a credit limit of £2000 ?

You can transfer £2000: Special Briefing: Didn’t get the credit limit you want – DON’T ‘screw them!’

YorkshireBoy

balks wrote:

Hi,

Sorry if my first message wasnt clear. Ive never done a BT before.

Yes, i have £3000 of interest bearing debt on my HSBC card
I would like to apply for a CapitalOne 0% BT card, and transfer all £3000 across.

But what if CapitalOne give me a credit limit of £2000 ?
Can i call them and say i have a 9600 limit with HSBC, and transfer some of the limit across ?

The reason i ask is because i remember Amex told my father he could transfer credit limits from other bank/store cards if he would like a higher limit on his amex.

Cheers

OK then, this reply will assume you know a little about credit cards, balance transfers, and credit history/report files. If you don't, and/or you can't understand the principles of what I'm saying, then you should take some time out to read Martins credit card articles on the main site.

I don't know your background, credit history, electoral role, etc, but the safest way of ensuring you get a reasonable limit on Cap One is to lose (by asking HSBC to reduce it) as much as you can of the possibly unnecessarily high £9,600 HSBC limit before applying to Cap One. You have 2 options now...

1. Normally, I'd say wait until your credit report shows this lower limit before making the Cap One application.

2. However, I was told very recently by both Equifax & Experian that most of the High Street banks do not report CC account (or even current account) activity to the main CRA's. I know this to be true of the 2 banks that I deal with, having seen my reports, although I can't speak with authority on HSBC. If you "want" to "gamble" and go this way, make your application now. However, if asked you will have to say what your limit is on the HSBC card. If HSBC have written to you saying it's now £5K or whatever, then (even if they do report to the CRA's and it takes a couple of months to update) you'll be telling the truth when you say £5K.

Ask to transfer a £3K balance from your HSBC card when you apply for Cap One. You'll quote the card number and provider's name - that's all there is to it. Apart from paying the monthly payments which is really important to get set up properly.

I hope this gives you something to think about and, like I suggested, at the beginning, have a read of Martin's articles for the fine tuning.

denys

Balks,

It sounds like HSBC is your only CC; therefore I would advice you against lowering your credit limit there as it will more likely prevent you of getting similar credit limits with other providers. (To YorkshireBoy: “available” but “unused” credit taken into consideration favourably by all institutions, care should be taken only if your “unused” credit totals to more than 3x of your income in most cases) As for getting to look at your credit file it is always a good idea. Use Experian CreditExpert trial if you want to do it for free.

YorkshireBoy

denys wrote:

To YorkshireBoy: “available” but “unused” credit taken into consideration favourably by all institutions

I agree, but the OP's is a ratio of 3:1 (which leaves an awful lot available to spend) and we don't know what other items are on his file, for example the size of his mortgage, salary, and other credit agreements.

I also agree that many CC providers 'expect' their applicants current account provided CC to have a high limit - my bank has raised mine consistently over the years. It can and does represent good financial management on a day-day/week-week basis over many years.

balks

Thanks for all your input thus far guys.

I went ahead and applied for the Capital One card. It didnt give me an immediate answer, just says contact u in 10-14 days.

My main CC is with HSBC.
I do also have an old Egg card which i got back in the days of Cashback offers etc, but I dont use it anymore.
I have no mortgage, but will probably take one out in the next couple of years.

I decided to get my credit report from the free Experian trial, and found some interesting results ....
I thought HSBC and Egg were my only CCs, but Experian shows a Halifax CC with £2k limit !!! I dont have a Halifax card! I remember looking at the halifax website back in Sept 2004, but i thought i never actually went thru with it. And i certainly havent received the card. Very odd ! I will have to check this with Halifax tomorrow.

Interestingly it doesnt show my HSBC card on there (as suggested in a previous post).

Otherwise, my credit report is good i believe. No bad marks there at all.

Just need to wait and see what Capital One say


Cheers

grumbler

balks wrote:

Interestingly it doesnt show my HSBC card on there

Quite strange. HSBC started providing CRAs with information from the 1st of August: http://money.guardian.co.uk/creditanddebt/story/0,1456,1536174,00.html

YorkshireBoy

grumbler wrote:

Quite strange. HSBC started providing CRAs with information from the 1st of August: http://money.guardian.co.uk/creditanddebt/story/0,1456,1536174,00.html

Yes, but aren't they always a bit behind with the reporting, because I noticed some information on my recent reports had not been updated for 6-8 weeks. Maybe that's the reason?