'Bad Credit' Credit Cards Article Discussion

billie.skeggs · 1 September 2010 at 8:16PM

one think im mot sure about when it comes to credit cards is intrest.

ive never had a credit card but would like to get one to help improve my credit. im looking mainly to use it for petrol expencese and emergancy funds.

most i would spend wiould be £300 per month and would pay in full each month.

how exactly does the intrest work.. if i spend 300, is that all i pay back each month, or is intrestd added before this..

this is where i get confused.. espically with the 0% on purchases etc etc

Many thanks

1Moneymonster · 8 September 2010 at 8:40PM

Six years ago i bought a property which i share with my partner and now 4 children, i got a mortgage with a IFA at the time and after many complications with the mortgage it turned out that although i signed for a rate that i thought was going to be, i ended up paying 10.5% interest rate on a £160k mortgage which cost me my credit rating because i missed payments on other bills etc and i had ccj and defaults because of my situation i complianed to the FSA which went in my favour and i had £2600 compensation off the IFA, but this still didnt change my mortgage, i am still with the same mortgage lender Morgan Chase and on interest only which suits me at the moment at 5,4% interest rate, throughout the past 5 years i have also lost my job twice beacuse of company closures, which didnt help my financial situation, I have joined Gregory pennington to consolidate my debts but dont feel this is making me any better. I have 40k worth of debt, i am paying £100 a month towards through gregory pennington, my mortgage payments are up to date. how can i get this credit better for me and my partner . the banks get bailed out when they are in debt can i get bailed out! i work fulltime and earn 40k per year but i am concerned about the future if the interest rates rise we will suffer , my condition has been caused by an IFS that but me on the a bad mortgage deal. would it benefit me with one of these cash builder cards? should i do an IVA? can someone please help

colin_fox · 12 September 2010 at 11:52AM

Whilst this is not directly relating to the question in hand any help that anyone could give would be appreciated

We provisionally booked a room in France in March , provided our number and code.

We were unable to stay at the appointed hotel and our credit card has now expired , however the hotel are chasing us for full payment of the room/

Therefore can someone advise please , are they still able to charge us despite our credit card now being expired and secondly would this effect our credit worthiness in the future if we did not pay the cost of the room

Thanks

redpete · 13 September 2010 at 1:28PM

colin_fox wrote: »

Whilst this is not directly relating to the question in hand

As your question is entirely unrelated to this thread you should start another one.

mochynbach · 17 September 2010 at 7:14PM

Hello all!
I have been looking into the idea of applying for a credit card having had very poor history with money. I'm sorry if the following is convoluted.
I entered into a Debt management plan in 2008 with the CCCS; cleared most of the debt with creditors, bar 3 accounts which accepted a full and final settlement, obviously these are now on my credit file (experian and Equifax reports) and will be, as far as I'm aware for the next 6 years. All other factors on my credit report are up to date and positive.
I am now in the 11th month of my 'cashplus credit builder account' with regular payments being made with no problems and this is now showing on experian and equifax reports.

The only reason I'm looking into getting a credit card is to use another 'tool' to 'heal' my credit rating/report, and therefore would only be using it for small purchases e.g. petrol and food. I'm well aware of the dangers of credit cards and I've learned my lesson the hard way!
From reading the article, the Vanquis and Capital One cards are the only ones which I might have a small chance of being accepted for, however, I'm pretty sure I would be rejected if I were to apply online and incur further 'knock backs' on my credit file.

Can anyone tell me whether approaching these companies via telephone would be a better way to go? I just wonder whether it's possible to give them the information I've collected from my credit reports, before they do their own search would be favourable and also explaining that, yes I have a poor credit history, but my circumstances have changed dramatically since those dark days.

I would get on the phone to them now but I'm a bit wary, having been bullied by financial companies in the past over the phone. Plus I don't really want to make an idiot of myself!
Thanks for any advice.

Toe-Jam · 20 September 2010 at 10:16AM

Premier wrote: »

Don't worry about only spending a little per month on the card. The credit file won't show that detail. All it will show is that you have an existing credit agreement, perhaps the amount of credit available (not 100% sure that is even shown), and no bad history. Bingo, you are on the road to having a good credit history

That is not true, your credit file will show in great detail your credit cards and what you do with them. It will show your Limit at any given time, What your statement Balance is, and how much you paid off your card the previous month, and whether or not you used it in an ATM.

To boost your score, you should not have a Balance of more than 30% of your limit on any of your cards at a given time.

They use a formula to work out how much of a risk you are.

Burden of Debt / Total Available credit X 100

They consider 30% or less good, and if its over 50% then you look like you are living off your credit cards, put simply.

Some people advise that closing unused credit cards improves your score. From my experience this is not the case.

if you have 2 credit cards both with £1000 limit, and you owe nothing on one of them and £500 on the other, you are a good risk because

500/2000X100 , means you are only using 25% of your available credit.

But if you close your unused card, then it rockets up to 50% and will damage your credit score.

craig.selby · 20 September 2010 at 1:33PM

I have recently been accepted for a Vanquis CC which I plan to use to start rebuilding my credit history.

I was just wondering if I was to use this card to pay for a weekly home delivery from say ASDA or Tesco and payed it off immediatly would that give me a good return for my credit report?

Also I currently privately rent my home and pay by bank transfer every month, could I do the bank transfer from the vanquis card and again pay this off in full every month or would the bank transfer count as a cash transaction not a purchase?

thanks,

Toe-Jam · 20 September 2010 at 7:22PM

craig.selby wrote: »

I have recently been accepted for a Vanquis CC which I plan to use to start rebuilding my credit history.

I was just wondering if I was to use this card to pay for a weekly home delivery from say ASDA or Tesco and payed it off immediatly would that give me a good return for my credit report?

Also I currently privately rent my home and pay by bank transfer every month, could I do the bank transfer from the vanquis card and again pay this off in full every month or would the bank transfer count as a cash transaction not a purchase?

thanks,

Yes it will show favourable on your credit report. If you buy your groceries and then pay it off. Vanquis may not look on it so favourably, as you are not making them any money. Every 3-4 months leave a small balance £10 or so, so you pay interest , and then pay the lot off the following month.

If you ask Vanquis to transfer money to your bank, it will count as a cash advance, you should always avoid this, it looks like your desperate for cash.

craig.selby · 21 September 2010 at 12:01AM

i wouldnt be transfering money from my vanquis card to my account but i would be making a payment to my andlords bank account would this be the same thing?

msquare · 16 October 2010 at 11:32PM

Hi, I have 3 credit cards, one of which I've had for quite sometime now. However, for some godforsaken reason, I have a bad credit score.

i applied for the Barclaycard Initial and Vanquis card, and was approved for both. I am now thinking of applying for the Capital One card as well to have more credit cards that are specifically designed to improve my credit score.

Should I go ahead or will that work out negatively?

'Bad Credit' Credit Cards Article Discussion

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