Well I’ve been waiting very patiently for Chase to perhaps one day produce a credit card, but alas, it seems it isn’t forthcoming. So, with a holiday purchase coming up to my favourite Caribbean destination, I thought I’d try and find a credit card with a decent interest free period as that is how we always fund our holidays.
And so, via Topcashback, I successfully applied for a HSBC 20 months interest free purchase card. I was suitably impressed with a fairly whopping credit limit of 10 times my previous Marks and Spencer CC, who, for some reason known only unto themselves refused to increase my credit limit when I asked.
Anyway, I’m extremely impressed with the speed the new HSBC CC arrived and I’m also impressed by their App which was easy enough to set up. I’m also happy with the £35 cashback just for applying through Topcashback.
I also lost patience with Chase too and applied for the Virgin Everyday Cashback card which gives 0.25% cashback and no overseas charges. Also despite them not raising the limit on my existing Virgin card yet they have essentially doubled my Virgin limit by issuing the new card!
Indeed banks are weird! I just couldn’t work out M&S logic about my credit limit. I literally have a perfect credit score across all three major scoring agencies. I was turned down point blank by TSB for their Platinum interest free period card despite me having a TSB mortgage. And yet, submitting the exact same information about salary, address etc, HSBC gave me a card just like that! The whole thing is just so fickle
Haven’t tried HSBC, but Barclays have previously said ‘no’ for their travel card yet same info and I get essentially the same card from Virgin
Also noticed that I can get, say, a BT card from M&S yet the eligibility says ‘no’ for their other cards. That one’s particularly confusing as if they’re up for lending me, say, £5000 on a BT, why not £5000 on a different card?
I’m part way through an HSBC card 0% spending deal that I’m using for stoozing, I like it except that it does charge something like 3% for non-sterling transactions.
A couple of weeks ago I got a Santander “everyday” 12-month fee-free 0% balance transfer card, and that’s fine although the 12 months starts from when they open the account but then it took 10 days to receive the card and you have to activate it before they will then initiate the balance transfer, so it’s actually closer to 11.5 months rather than 12.
The only time I’ve been rejected for a credit card was with Sainsbury’s Bank, probably 15 years ago! Couldn’t work out that decision either.
With the HSBC cc application, I did it on a Sunday night and I received the card 3 days later. I thought that was pretty impressive if I’m honest. The card PIN number was available in App before it arrived in the post.
Be wary if what happens if you use it to buy stuff whilst still in the BT period. Saw someone a week or so back being hit with the choice of repaying the full balance or paying interest on the spending until the 0% offer ran out.
Hadn’t thought of it myself but that doesn’t seem to happen with Sainsbury’s, which is just as well because they have a clause requiring you to use It occasionally.
Thanks, it’s a 0% spending card rather than BT. I have used it abroad (only because there was a 10% cashback offer in the summer) and got charged the non–sterling fee, but this has just gone onto the balance at 0%.
I hate that foreign charge. First time ever, I’ll be paying it on Amex this week but only because they’ve a £50 statement credit on the hotel I’m using it for.
They indeed are. Last year HSBC gave me a limit of £1200. On seeing that limit in the app I immediately called and cancelled the account before the card was even sent.
I immediately went to FD who gave me £5k o heir eligibility checker. And I thought these two are “the same”
The 3 CRAs don’t score you - the score is done by the potential lender (in-house) on the basis of information on the your application, CRA data and sometimes in-house data. Your outcome can also have zero reflection on your credit worthiness as they may be seeking a particular profile type or be simply tightening their lending. Probably reflective of TSB or Barclaycard in your case.
Well thank you for correcting me, it’s always a pleasure being shown to be incorrect and then having the boot thrown in for good measure by being told one is wrong
Thankfully, I genuinely couldn’t care less whether TSB or M&S deem me as a possible pointless customer because they’ll never make money out of me. I’ve spent the last 25 odd years getting interest free loans out of credit card providers. HSBC are just one out of a long list that gives me the option of paying back a considerable amount of money at zero interest to me. It’s a good job that there’s plenty of folks out there that pay huge amounts in interest to keep my lending free
Yes, but I don’t see the practical difference to them of them giving me a BT of £5000 (adding £5k to their loan book right away) or giving me a new card with a £5k limit (which would start off as zero and might get to £5k). Thing is with the BT, they are immediately adding £5k to their loan book whereas with the purchase card it might never reach £5k.
Thing is, with M&S, I seem to get offers of the BT card way more frequently than for their other cards.
What I do with the BT card I’d transferred from doesn’t affect their risk profile directly I don’t think.
