Two basic Overdraft and Credit Card questions

[monel]

Can anyone please advise me on this, if possible?

1. Does your authorised overdraft with your bank affect your credit score? Such as how overdrawn you are?


2. How hard is it to transfer your credit card balance to another (new) credit card account and how would one go about choosing where to do it? I'm asking because someone at my bank suggested this but I have no clue since I've never cosidered it before.

[Baseley09]

Not sure about the first, as for transferring balances its a simple phonecall or form to fill out.

Look for a card that offers the longest interest free introductory period for balance transfers, then the lowest APR after that period depending on your needs. http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/ is a great place to start for tracking such things.

I do it always, wait for the interest free period to end then transfer to a new card....bare in mind, more often than not a transfer fee is required which is a percentage of the balance being transferred.

[monel]

Thanks, that was very helpful. Does it help to pay off a large-ish amount on your current card first so that your credit rating looks better for the balance transfer?

Also, does transferring too often negatively affect your credit rating?

I think I've been getting buggered by interest even though I always tried to clear my balance in full whenever possible. It's just that online shopping and trading is a curse at times, when at 5am you decide you want some old TV series and 10 cds, and then it all just adds up.

[charlesr]

www.egg.com are offering me 0% for ages at the moment. I'm already a customer though so no idea if new customers get the same deal. It's only 0% on the transfer balance though remember. You need to *pay it off*. I've avoided using all this stuff by always paying off my credit card balance in full. Every month. If you haven't got funds to pay it off in full, you shouldn't be spending it in the first place in my opinion - it's a terrible way to get credit. The only valid use for credit cards is to get cashback / points etc. NOT FOR CREDIT.

You only need to worry about your credit rating if you need a loan or mortgage. By the sounds of it, you should not be thinking about a loan and should be worrying about paying off your debts.

[monel]

I agree, I always paid off my cc debt fully every month, but then I got stung in several other unrelated ways which I won't go into. One was two people not repaying money I had lent them, this was not a huge problem, but it affected me. I avoid loans like the plague, I've been offered many but will never take any unless there is a very specific reason such as education or business.

[Shez]

Thanks, that was very helpful. Does it help to pay off a large-ish amount on your current card first so that your credit rating looks better for the balance transfer?

Also, does transferring too often negatively affect your credit rating?

Nah, transfer what suits you, you're credit rating is not affected by balance transferring

[monel]

Ok, thanks for that, that's very useful to know.

[eastyy]

my job is at a credit card company so this is my forte Lol

generally though
transferring balances is usually no problem as long as the credit cards are not run by the same companys (though even then sometimes there is a way around it)

as far as credit ratings though ....i have had people applying for a credit cards and being refused and they complain why and the usual thing they say is "but i have a good credit rating" followed by "i have 5 other credit cards " or "why has this new card got a credit limit of 1000 my other cards are between 4 and 5k"

basically people cannot get unlimited credit if they have cards that 0 balance but a credit limit of say 4k that 4k is taken into account .If the customer wanted to they could go out tommorow and spend 4k on that card so if you have credit cards that are not being used and never going to be used close them down and it frees credit up for the future (oh also another tip if you close down a credit card its not show as closed with credit reference agencys unless there is a zero balance so say if the balance is ?2 in credit call up to claim that money back)

also some credit cards allow money transfers so if having a overdraft is costing a fair bit that can be cleared off

[charlesr]

I have a ridiculous amount of credit available to me compared to my income and I'm constantly being bombarded with offers of more guaranteed credit - I don't think the limit is working

[eastyy]

I have a ridiculous amount of credit available to me compared to my income and I'm constantly being bombarded with offers of more guaranteed credit - I don't think the limit is working

yeah funny that the people who dont want/need the credit can get it easily the people who really really need it cannot get it

[GusLancaster]

I'm a retard.