Alternatively, You Could Apply For A Similar Card From A Different Card Issuer

Category: Finance, Credit.

The days when the only way to get a credit card was to visit your bank in person are gone forever.

While this is obviously a great convenience, there is a downside to online credit card applications: they can actually be too easy, and can harm your credit rating. Nowadays, it s even quite old fashioned to apply for a card by mail- it s much easier and quicker to apply online, and in many cases you ll even get an instant decision on whether your application is accepted or not. When you re offered the chance to apply for a credit card online, it s not always clear exactly what kind of customer a card issuer is hoping to attract. In the old days, your bank manager or financial advisor would only offer you cards which you had a good chance of being accepted for, but when you re applying online there s no one but yourself to check if the card is right for you. Each kind of card is aimed at someone within a range of circumstances, such as having a minimum income, being older than a certain age, or having a certain level of credit score. And, seeing as how applying online is so easy, it can be tempting to just apply anyway and see if you re approved. Every time you re rejected for a card or other kind of finance, this fact is recorded on your credit file.

This can be a great mistake. If you have a lot of rejections on your file and not many acceptances, this can actually make your credit rating appear worse, making it ever harder to have an application approved. The first step is to have a good hard look at the range of cards available with the features you want, whether it s a 0% balance transfer deal, a low APR or interest rate, or a great rewards program. Obviously, this isn t a desirable outcome and so how can you avoid it? The large number of credit card comparison sites on the internet make this a lot easier than it used to be. If everything seems okay, then take an honest look at your financial circumstances and application history, and decide whether you think you ve got a reasonable chance of being approved.

Once you ve got a shortlist of cards to apply for, check the small print of the one you think is the best, and make sure that there isn t anything like a minimum salary which makes it impossible for you to be approved. Only after that should you actually go forward with your application, and you should only apply for one card at once. Alternatively, you could apply for a similar card from a different card issuer. If your application is rejected, see if that card company offers a similar card with a higher interest rate- the acceptance criteria is likely to be looser on that card and so it may be worth applying for it. Different companies have different ways of deciding whether to approve an application, so you might have more luck elsewhere. At this point, you have little choice but to set your sights a little lower and apply for a less attractive card, even if this means you ll have to pay more for the convenience of carrying a credit card. What you absolutely shouldn t do is keep applying for similar cards from the same issuer, as the acceptance criteria will be more or less the same, and you ll just keep getting rejected, with all the problems this causes for your credit rating.

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