How to best increase credit limit for new card?
Discussion
Merry Christmas all!
Right, in the next few months I'm going to buy my first car in aaages. I'm not against just buying a shed outright, but to be honest I'd like my first car in five years to be something I'll be happy about rather than it being a necessary appliance, so would like a larger budget.
Anyway, my situation is thus: I currently have a £1K 0%overdraft available from my student account which will expire in April of next year when my account is changed (I've worked straight form uni). I haven't touched my overdraft in about two years (except when shifting money between accounts) and don't expect to ever again, so I'm happy to lose it. I also have a credit card with a limit of £100, which is pretty pointless and another with a limit of £2750. I made a couple of purchases on these years ago during their introductory offers and havent used them since.
Now, rather than getting a loan, I was thinking of ditching all of this credit I never use, getting a new credit card with a 0% introductory offer for as long as possible and using it to purchase a car, making it, in effect a cheap loan which I can hammer down without paying interest and then transfer onto a new card at a later date, using some new introductory balance transfer offer.
Now I'm not quite asking "how do I get £X,XXX credit limit", but what steps should I take to increase the maximum available credit offered on a new card?
Am I better scrapping all my cards and my overdraft ASAP, thus reducing my current exposure to credit, hopefully adding to whatever the new card company will make available to me, or should I be making a few pointless purchases and paying them off ASAP to show how amazing a customer I am? Or is three months too short a time to make a difference anyway?
Sorry for the verbose post, bit merry!
Right, in the next few months I'm going to buy my first car in aaages. I'm not against just buying a shed outright, but to be honest I'd like my first car in five years to be something I'll be happy about rather than it being a necessary appliance, so would like a larger budget.
Anyway, my situation is thus: I currently have a £1K 0%overdraft available from my student account which will expire in April of next year when my account is changed (I've worked straight form uni). I haven't touched my overdraft in about two years (except when shifting money between accounts) and don't expect to ever again, so I'm happy to lose it. I also have a credit card with a limit of £100, which is pretty pointless and another with a limit of £2750. I made a couple of purchases on these years ago during their introductory offers and havent used them since.
Now, rather than getting a loan, I was thinking of ditching all of this credit I never use, getting a new credit card with a 0% introductory offer for as long as possible and using it to purchase a car, making it, in effect a cheap loan which I can hammer down without paying interest and then transfer onto a new card at a later date, using some new introductory balance transfer offer.
Now I'm not quite asking "how do I get £X,XXX credit limit", but what steps should I take to increase the maximum available credit offered on a new card?
Am I better scrapping all my cards and my overdraft ASAP, thus reducing my current exposure to credit, hopefully adding to whatever the new card company will make available to me, or should I be making a few pointless purchases and paying them off ASAP to show how amazing a customer I am? Or is three months too short a time to make a difference anyway?
Sorry for the verbose post, bit merry!
Edited by glazbagun on Wednesday 25th December 16:39
This probably won't be the answer you want to hear but if you aren't in the financial position to pay your credit cards off each month I really recommend you don't max one out, you'll get ass raped by the credit card company.
The only real way to improve your credit rating is to demonstrate that you can borrow money and pay it back on time. Again, if you can clear your credit card each month your credit rating should improve.
The only real way to improve your credit rating is to demonstrate that you can borrow money and pay it back on time. Again, if you can clear your credit card each month your credit rating should improve.
RedWhiteMonkey said:
This probably won't be the answer you want to hear but if you aren't in the financial position to pay your credit cards off each month I really recommend you don't max one out, you'll get ass raped by the credit card company.
The only real way to improve your credit rating is to demonstrate that you can borrow money and pay it back on time. Again, if you can clear your credit card each month your credit rating should improve.
Not sure if I'm misunderstanding or if my rambling post wasn't clear. To clarify: I have no debt (student loan aside), and have two credit cards, balances clear, that have gathered dust for over a year and an overdraft that I haven't used in over a year. The only real way to improve your credit rating is to demonstrate that you can borrow money and pay it back on time. Again, if you can clear your credit card each month your credit rating should improve.
I'm not looking to refinance current debt (as I have none), but rather to maximise the amount of debt a credit card company is likely to offer me in future. I'm just curious as to whether there's something I should do before cancelling all my current credit cards, with this aim in mind.
glazbagun said:
I'm not looking to refinance current debt (as I have none), but rather to maximise the amount of debt a credit card company is likely to offer me in future. I'm just curious as to whether there's something I should do before cancelling all my current credit cards, with this aim in mind.
See point two, the credit card companies want to see that you have a proven track record of spending big and paying off on time. Do that, if you can, and you should build a better credit rating.glazbagun said:
Merry Christmas all!
Right, in the next few months I'm going to buy my first car in aaages. I'm not against just buying a shed outright, but to be honest I'd like my first car in five years to be something I'll be happy about rather than it being a necessary appliance, so would like a larger budget.
Anyway, my situation is thus: I currently have a £1K 0%overdraft available from my student account which will expire in April of next year when my account is changed (I've worked straight form uni). I haven't touched my overdraft in about two years (except when shifting money between accounts) and don't expect to ever again, so I'm happy to lose it. I also have a credit card with a limit of £100, which is pretty pointless and another with a limit of £2750. I made a couple of purchases on these years ago during their introductory offers and havent used them since.
Now, rather than getting a loan, I was thinking of ditching all of this credit I never use, getting a new credit card with a 0% introductory offer for as long as possible and using it to purchase a car, making it, in effect a cheap loan which I can hammer down without paying interest and then transfer onto a new card at a later date, using some new introductory balance transfer offer.
Now I'm not quite asking "how do I get £X,XXX credit limit", but what steps should I take to increase the maximum available credit offered on a new card?
Am I better scrapping all my cards and my overdraft ASAP, thus reducing my current exposure to credit, hopefully adding to whatever the new card company will make available to me, or should I be making a few pointless purchases and paying them off ASAP to show how amazing a customer I am? Or is three months too short a time to make a difference anyway?
Sorry for the verbose post, bit merry!
None of that tells us anything useful to even have a vague idea at an answer.Right, in the next few months I'm going to buy my first car in aaages. I'm not against just buying a shed outright, but to be honest I'd like my first car in five years to be something I'll be happy about rather than it being a necessary appliance, so would like a larger budget.
Anyway, my situation is thus: I currently have a £1K 0%overdraft available from my student account which will expire in April of next year when my account is changed (I've worked straight form uni). I haven't touched my overdraft in about two years (except when shifting money between accounts) and don't expect to ever again, so I'm happy to lose it. I also have a credit card with a limit of £100, which is pretty pointless and another with a limit of £2750. I made a couple of purchases on these years ago during their introductory offers and havent used them since.
Now, rather than getting a loan, I was thinking of ditching all of this credit I never use, getting a new credit card with a 0% introductory offer for as long as possible and using it to purchase a car, making it, in effect a cheap loan which I can hammer down without paying interest and then transfer onto a new card at a later date, using some new introductory balance transfer offer.
Now I'm not quite asking "how do I get £X,XXX credit limit", but what steps should I take to increase the maximum available credit offered on a new card?
Am I better scrapping all my cards and my overdraft ASAP, thus reducing my current exposure to credit, hopefully adding to whatever the new card company will make available to me, or should I be making a few pointless purchases and paying them off ASAP to show how amazing a customer I am? Or is three months too short a time to make a difference anyway?
Sorry for the verbose post, bit merry!
Edited by glazbagun on Wednesday 25th December 16:39
Are you on electoral role at the address you'll be putting on the application?
Are you on OSIS, ditto above?
Ditto above, for how long?
Income/job/sector? + how long/how much/how often/verifiable with employer or statements to support?
Any missed payments/defaults?
If you are using a credit card to buy a car I think there will be a fee charged by the garage.
And as you say you will then balance transfer this, there will be another charge.
We are only talking a few percent each time but may be more sensible for you to get a personal loan anyway and at least you know the fixed monthly cost.
I would tend to agree with you that three months does not seem much time to dramatically alter your credit limit/rating.
By the way how much do you want to spend on the car?
And as you say you will then balance transfer this, there will be another charge.
We are only talking a few percent each time but may be more sensible for you to get a personal loan anyway and at least you know the fixed monthly cost.
I would tend to agree with you that three months does not seem much time to dramatically alter your credit limit/rating.
By the way how much do you want to spend on the car?
Lenders will use a number of factors to determine what they can offer you including whether you're on the electoral role, your income, assessing your credit report.
They'll want to see that you have a history of regularly paying back, so ideally you would have been putting all your spending on your current credit cards and paying each statement off in full.
Your income, how much credit you already have available to you in relation to your income and whether you have a current account (which money is regularly being paid into) with the provider will affect what credit limit they will give you the most.
They'll want to see that you have a history of regularly paying back, so ideally you would have been putting all your spending on your current credit cards and paying each statement off in full.
Your income, how much credit you already have available to you in relation to your income and whether you have a current account (which money is regularly being paid into) with the provider will affect what credit limit they will give you the most.
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