Can someone answer a question for me re being a zero interest rate card tart??

[HandbagAddiction]

So DH and I were discussing this last night as I have no balance on my credit card - ha does have a largish balance - about 6K (we used the card to pay for our kitchen) and the interest free period is about to run out. This is the second interest free card DH has had having transferred the balance once before.

So - both myself and DH have excellent credit histories - we have recently checked them ourselves through Credit expert but DH has recently been refused a new card by Barclaycard. He now thinks that because he has had a Capital One visa card and previous to that an MBNA mastercard that the reason he's been refused is because he's already had a Visa and a mastercard before. I don't agree because I don't believe the underlying service provider (i.e. visa or mastercard) has anything to do with it.... If they did, we'd all be stuffed as ultimately there are only two underlying providers.

I think the reason he's been refused is just because he's made a couple of applications for new cards recently and these will have shown up on any credit check run by a card provider and this can sometimes look bad.

Understandably we're keen to get the balance shifted onto another interest free deal..but at the moment struggling as to how to do it given DH's refusals

Any ideas anyone???

The underlying bank provider may not let you have more than one. For example Amazon MC is actually provided by Halifax. So if you've already had a Halifax MC you may not be able to get an Amazon one IYSWIM. Worth checking who the providers are.

Also could be something completely random. If you've moved and not updated your address, or if your address previously had a bad credit record from previous owners/tennants.

I think you might be hinting that you have no balance and so would like to transfer his debt to a card of your own. Which is perfectly legal. We do it all the time. It probably is the recent spate of applications that is causing the problem. We try to limit ours to one every four months.

Also some providers say you have to provide a landline phone number rather than mobile. Are you applying in person/over the phone or online/on a form? If the latter it might be worth speaking to someone who can make sure you're giving the right info.

Thanks for the feedback - all very useful.

janinlondon - yes one of the options we've considered is for me to get a new card - having just cleared my old one and transfer dh's balance to me. However I wasn't sure that you could do this, i.e. transfer balances between people. From what you have said, this is actually possibly - can you let me know how to do this?

HBA - we just apply for a new card and then give the name and account number we want to transfer the balance from. Have never encountered any problem doing it.

Good to know. Thanks for the info.

Marin Lewis website moneysavingexpert.com
has a huge amount of information and some really helful people in the forums.

It's a great website for lots of things.

If you have a few cards it can affect your credit rating even if you have nil balances on all but one. the reason for this is lenders dont want to give you more credit as you already have access to lots of other credit. best thing to do is close some of your other cards.also like you say if you have applied for other cards in one go this wont help. cap one and barclaycard are not supplied by the same bank. try rbs or natwest card they are on 0% for 13 mths these are both supplied by rbs so you wouldnt be able to swap balances between these 2 cards