where has the credit gone?

[winterblues25]

I’ve usually never had a problem being accepted for credit but just tried to increase my credit limit on my card recently and was refused, new balance transfer card and loan applications refused, credit score good, even the balance transfer offers on my credit card which I’ve had for years have been withdrawn??

Actually is a far worse indicator if the credit is used to pay for essentials. A very bad indicator of someone's finances.
Frivolous spending can be cut back , essentials cannot, no idea why Op is comparing themselves favourably as its not frivolous, its dire to be in a position where food is purchased on a CC , however Op could luckily cut back but chooses not to.

Haven't RTFT, but in case no-one has suggested it yet, @winterblues25 , try the money saving expert site, as they have a pre-checker for likelihood of acceptance for cards, including best for balance transfers and 0% interest deals.

Everyone has maximum credit providers are willing to give. Eventually you run into the wall where you will not get more.
So if you are applying for new card to transfer balance from another you ARE getting more credit available even if your plan is to transfer from another card and close that one, for example.
You may have simply reached your maximum credit availability ceiling.

You really should talk to someone from debt advice. And go FT.

I've recently had my limit automatically increased and moved a large purchase onto an interest free balance transfer, so have offers and credit still available. We use credit for big purchases, holidays or christmas and pay off in full immediately or within a few months. I agree with other posters that this is likely happening due to how much of the debt you are proportionally paying off

OP I had that situation about 28 months ago, no longer able to balance transfer and then stuck paying high interest. It was awful. The best thing I can recommend is 6-12 months of being super lean, cancel things you don’t need, shave a bit off the food shop, no holidays and discretionary spend, sell what you can on Vinted and get the balance down. Then in 6 months try again and I’m sure you’ll get a balance transfer at 0%.

Also to add- my income is the same as your DH. I am a single parent and my debt is double what yours is. I also have car payment and sofa payment. So I guess total my debt is way higher than yours and I've recently been given 2 0% 10 000 limit credit cards. One in sept and one in Dec. But earlier last year i was denied anything at all! I'm wondering if the time of year was in my favour, as leading up to Christmas they want people to spend? And now it's January maybe they've had loads of credit applications and it's a common month for people to sort their finances out.

So I'd say, wait a few months and get your DH to try again. Only list the 3 children under 18 as dependents.

When I was part time and earning similar to you, I was refused everything. Good luck! It sucks that everything is so expensive now 😫

To answer your question OP I’ve checked on my banking apps and I’m pre approved for credits cards and loans across different banks. One of them is a 23 month 0% balance transfer of £8k.

So no it’s not for everyone. It’s just you.

OP, your problem is caused by closing the paid off accounts.

When lenders are looking at risk, they want to see utilisation of credit. So if you've got £1,000 of debt but only a credit line of £1,100 you are using almost all of your available credit and look high risk. That same £1,000 against a £10,000 credit availability looks much better.

You would have balance transfers available if you had left the cleared cards open (but cut them up and never used them!).

We did this (cut down hugely on kids activities and only bought essential second hand clothing) for a year and paid off all our debt.

We are so much less stressed now.

And able to build a sustainable financial future.

The absolute best thing we could ever do for our kids.

We hardly ever get stressy with each other anymore… listen to Dave Ramsey (only for the financial side- ignore the conservative baptist bits unless you’re into that too.

i still only buy second hand clothing … vinted/ eBay/ facebook mp you can get new stuff for a fraction of the cost!

OP - can I suggest taking a step back and looking at the big picture.
This post paints a picture of someone doing small(ish) things to make their day to day life easier and to enable them to focus on some priorities.

Can I say I entirely agree that some children's clubs are perfectly reasonable, and it doesn't sound like they are very expensive ones other than swimming (I agree - an essential), and also I fully agree that your DH should pay for his child at university - it's not their fault that their access to student finance is limited by their parent's earnings.

That said, some of the rest might be false economy. Three lots of uniform should see you through a week and you can wash at the weekend. Your school age children are old enough to keep track of their own socks - stop doing this for them! Buying a coat in the sale for next year might work for the 6 year old, but the 10 year old might have a totally different shape next year (either because of growth spurt or puberty) and is likely at the age where they are going to refuse to wear any generic coat their parent bought because it was cheap. You are actually likely to find a cheaper, better quality coat on Vinted if you look in the autumn.

If you stopped spending on the "extras" even for 1 month / 2 months/ 3 months/6 months and put this money into the credit card instead, this will save you a ton of interest in the long term - which is more money to spend on your children.

Try contacting step change, it's a free service, so you have nothing to lose. It's possible they can speak directly to the bank and get you a consolidation loan, so you're not stuck in the loop of 'computer says no' when applying for credit.

I'd imagine you have what banks call 'over exposure' to credit. If you're regularly maxing out cards and only making minimum payments over a long period, or have too many cards with related lenders. If you apply for lots of cards in short space of time, then you can be declined on that basis as well, so it would be best to stop applying and speak to a debt charity for help.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/

Have a look on the debt & credit board on MSE for information and advice.

Use the MSE budget spreadsheet to list your monthly income and outgoings. Then see where you can make savings by switching to cheaper utilities/tariffs etc to cheaper providers.

Making small changes across your entire budget will help to release funds from your salary. You can use to build up rainy day savings so you don't rely on credit cards. If you eat out regularly and put it on the credit card, can you limit this to once a week. Take hot drinks in a flask and a packed lunch for day trips etc.

Supermarket - where do you shop? I use Tesco for fresh fruit and vegetables as it lasts longer. Then Lidl/Aldi for everything else and this brings the costs down.

Can you sell your kids old toys/clothes and use the money for their next set of clothes? Look on vinted as well, filter for new items with tags on if you prefer.

Open a revolution or monzo account and transfer a fixed amount for your groceries & household costs. Allocate pots for each spending category so you can see where your money is going.

I'd suggest each of you take an extra shift an evening/weekend in retail/bars/sports clubs etc. Use this money to build up a separate savings pot because it's clear you don't have anything spare if the boiler/car breaks down.

These suggestions aren't about depriving you of your lifestyle but to make your money work harder for you. You can make smarter choices and not rely on credit to fund your essentials

@winterblues25 They like you to keep credit at 50% or less and pay off more than the minimum .
If they can see your using debt to live and no cash going in to pay it off . Then they curb your lending .
If you want your lending to increase then yes you have to have a year of spending less and letting it go to paying off the credit card(s)

If you need a credit card for every day essentials and not just a one off when say a large bill crops up I think thats a red flag. And then never paying off the card but keep running up debt. How much interest are you actually paying on all these loans. Thats the important thing to look at.

My local sports club needed match day assistants so I signed up. I make an extra £200 a month for 2 shifts and that's going towards our summer holidays. Maybe you can do something like this?

That's a concerning way to use a credit card. I have one for buying plane tickets, booking hotels or for a big purchase - because I get extra protection. I pay back by end of month and pay no interest at all.

Same here.

Most of the people with young children that I know have had no family help, are renting in the private sector and get UC to help with their rent (high rent area in the SE) and childcare costs and they simply can't afford to have debt, even if they could get credit.

They live within their means, because they have to. Several of them manage to put aside a little money each month so they have enough to cover a big purchase, eg a new washing machine, if they need to.

I had a zero % promotional offer on a card, which I took up. I saw from my credit report that it had a negative effect on the number because it was more than 50% of the card limit. Even though I am lucky enough not to have any running balances that get charged interest on any account and clear the other statements every month.

I paid it off on the day the promotion ended and the rating number improved.

On Experian you can get a "what if" estimate, to show what difference various changes might make.

There’s some very unpleasant people on this thread.

@winterblues25 get a copy of your credit report and check it. The multiple applications may also have had an impact.

You do need to check your spending and aim to pay off more than the minimum each month but you also don’t need a hairshirt.

You could also speak to your bank, in person and see what they are able to do regarding a personal loan to repay your cc debt. This would be a reset and as long as the credit card debt didn’t grow again you’d be back on your feet.

Which I find really odd given how the economy is built on debt. The government can borrow amounts beyond comprehension, but we do it and get shafted.

Countries tend not to go broke. They're so big that the lenders can't afford to let them fail. And when they do, other countries tend to bail them out because the results are so catastrophic they can destabilise whole regions.

And yet you still brought another child into the world when you couldn't really afford to.

I find it frustrating when high earners claim they are worse off day to day than people on UC or single parents etc as usual they are using more of their income to pay off mortgage and contribute to pensions or savings.

People on a low enough income to receive UC are not necessarily able to buy a house, there is a savings cap as well.

But, after getting through the majority of ops replies, it seems the problem in this case is that she has three kids and sees her financial position as being a family with three children and can’t understand why the reality doesn’t reflect that. Ops husband is actually a father of five who has been paying towards two households. But now his two older children are at uni he is paying towards four ‘households!’ It’s definitely a DH problem and kind of unfortunate for op really but presumably, once they have finished uni, ops financial position will improve again.

But if you stopped paying interest on what most would consider huge loans for just 'essentials' then you could afford swimming lessons etc. You have a weird attitude to money. Just because you want something does not mean you can have it, I'm afraid. If you have Lidl money you can't shop Waitrose, I'm afraid. the banks are doing you a favour by not letting you keep on having cheap credit. They don't trust you to pay off what you already owe because you only pay the minimum each month. You cannot go on living like this. You have to cut back. There is no point buying DC clothes that last five years btw because they will outgrow them. Stop living in debt. Most people do not and would be appalled to have 11k debt on top of a mortgage and possibly car finance, when that 11k is for food, loo roll, a pair of gloves and other things that should come out of income, not credit.
You need to wake up, You have a debt problem.

I presume op means paid the minimum on time. Not great, paying 24% interest on essentials, but many people seem to live this way.

I don't know anyone who does.