The Nationwide Credit Card - Unfortunate But Close!

!!! wrote: »

The wording for the Nationwide application can easily mislead people into thinking they!!!8217;re successful.

It says something along the lines of !!!8220;it looks like we can offer you....!!!8221; then you have the option to change the limit offered.

It!!!8217;s caught many people out.

Besides if you!!!8217;re getting cards offering you only £200 limits (Cap One) then don!!!8217;t be expecting a mainstream card for sometime yet

I have had threads here about Capital One previously, however they have been the worst lender in terms of handing out a ridiculously low credit limit each time I've applied with the intention to consolidate. Their affordability assessment has granted me 3 cards totaling £200 each (now consolidated to make £600) yet they couldn't grant me £600 on the first card to save me having to make an application three times, each 4 months apart, to artificially inflate the total line of credit. It is a backwards way of lending on their part.

My limits aren't as dire as it may have sounded with Capital One. I have a £1000 limit with Vanquis, £500 NewDay Amazon, £450 Aqua and a £660 limit with Barclays. Barclays will be used to balance transfer and close the Aqua card. This will bring my total number of cards down to four, in which I will be reducing further to three, once NewDay Amazon is paid off in a few months and the 0% expires.

I want to avoid NewDay in future as they have terrible customer service, although I haven't had a rough time with Aqua, my introductory offer was a generous 6 months for a subprime card, but now I have no purpose for the card other than clearing the balance and shutting it down.

Once I reduce my cards down to three, Vanquis being the oldest and Barclays being the newest and reduce the balance significantly on all three, I can then look for better offers, as the only thing I shouldn't have done and is affecting me massively is maxing them all out. It is considered irresponsible use on my part to be honest, but I have the affordability and means to pay them back without a problem, it just can't be done in 5 minutes.

Your quoted line from the on-screen quote is too generous, it is even more misleading than that. Like I said, I don't blame lenders when they decline me, as the reason is always the applicant's fault, e.g debt to income ratio, but they should seriously re-consider the process to avoid making people feel they've bagged the card before they have made up their mind. The credit limit can be reduced on-screen, however all lenders offer this, so I didn't think anything of it. How they can determine a credit limit before even properly credit checking you is a mystery, as they have to consider all data points on your credit file before completing the affordability assessment and setting your credit line. Oh well, Nationwide will tweak things in future hopefully.

A4445 wrote: »

This had been brought up before about Nationwide’s soft check being way off.

I’ve got a card with them but they are by far the worst for increases. I was even a main current account customer with them and the increases were very poor to say the least. They are far more lenient with loans, they wouldn’t give me £500 increase on my card but they would give me up to £25k loan lol weird lending criteria :rotfl:

Like I said, the quote offer even presents a credit limit, which is one of the things that makes it feel like a done deal, subject to the fraud and identity checks which most people pass fine. However, it is clear that they didn't use the soft check to actually make a proper conclusion before the hard check. The difference in what they receive in terms of records between a soft and hard check is not known to me, but apparently it isn't far off a full credit check.

I am a FlexOne holder (as I opened it at 16) and was promised a fee-free and interest-free overdraft when I turned 18 (too good to be true already) subject to a credit check, however when I came of age, they told me over the phone that the account doesn't have that facility and their system has never even considered me for one, even though NatWest granted me a £700 overdraft and they were the ones I was expecting to be the harshest of all. All the account documents and letters I've received for FlexOne show they CAN give an overdraft charge-free but they decided from the offset that I wasn't going to get it.

Skippy13 wrote: »

I've been with Nationwide for years and we've got our joint account with them which always has a credit balance, I've got savings with them and a Select card which is paid in full every month (if it's used) but when I decided to apply for a currrent account they wouldn't give me a £50 overdraft! I only wanted the account for spending money and the overdraft as a buffer but no.

I switched to NatWest who were my biggest creditor when I went BR (11 years ago) and they offered me a £2250 overdraft.

(Sorry, I know this post is about credit cards but it shows the weird way the banks work)

Credit where it is due (no pun intended), NatWest were quite nice to me, they took months and months to switch me from Adapt to Select when I turned 18, but within one month of using Select, they granted me a £700 overdraft and applied it literally within hours.

I used to source all my income through Nationwide, in the hope of turning 18 and being given an overdraft out of my excellent account usage + demonstrating a stable income everyday, but it didn't count for nothing and then changed their minds about overdrafts being allowed on FlexOne when I asked them. So now, because of NatWest's nicer appreciation, I have started putting all my money through them and leaving Nationwide's account dry as a bone mostly.

NatWest's overdraft costs are much much much cheaper than a subprime credit card, something like £16 a month for £700 borrowed, whereas Vanquis would charge more like £30-£40 on some interest plans.

A4445 wrote: »

I switched away from Nationwide to Halifax and I!!!8217;m glad I did, they offered a 2k overdraft not that I ever use it. £3800 on a Clarity Card and £3600 on a Halifax flex card. No complaints at all and £125 to switch I will stick with them!

How long ago did you do that? I think I might switch from Nationwide to Halifax Reward with a £75 bonus for switching. Nationwide offer me no reason at all to continue banking with them.

I don't expect much from them, but nothing at all is the answer in my case.

When you use their Switch Guarantee, do incoming payments to the old sort code and account number automatically redirect to the new one?