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Sunday, 11 March 2012

Top tips to avoid being turned down for a credit card

Worried about your credit card application being rejected?

Follow our top tips to give yourself the best chance of being accepted.

As the effects of the credit crunch linger on, lenders are continuing to tighten their criteria.
This means getting approved for credit can be quite a challenge.


	The Capital One Credit Card strengthens your credit rating. Apply online for a instant decision.

Representative Example: 34.9% APR representative (variable).
Based on a credit limit of £1,200 and a purchase rate of 34.9% p.a. (variable).
Capital One, Trent House, Station Street, Nottingham, NG2 3HX

Whatever sort of credit card you're looking for, you should start your search by comparing credit cards.

Financial firms have a duty to lend responsibly, to take reasonable steps to ensure that people will be able to pay back what they borrow. However, despite having a regular income and good credit history, some people are now finding their applications rejected.

In the current financial climate, it is more important than ever to know what makes you attractive to lenders and how you can avoid rejection.

Our top tips are designed to give you the best chance of being approved for credit.

Check your credit report
Improve your credit rating
Fill in the application carefully
Apply selectively

1. Check your credit report

The most important thing you can do before you apply for any type of credit - including credit cards, loans and mortgages - is check your credit report. This is what a lender will look at when deciding whether to approve your application for credit, so it’s essential you know what it contains.

In the UK there are three credit reference agencies - Equifax (www.equifax.co.uk), Experian (www.experian.co.uk) and Callcredit (www.callcreditcheck.com) - all of whom collect information about you and share it with banks and other lenders. Different lenders will use different agencies to access information.

You can check your credit rating with each of these agencies online by visiting their respective websites. You could also write to them and ask for your file for a £2 fee, but while this is cheaper than an online check it will take a lot longer.

Alternatively, for £19.99 you can check all three reports in one go, with the Multi Agency Report from Check My File (www.checkmyfile.co.uk).

2. Improve your credit rating

Once you have your credit reports, you will be able to see how good or bad your current rating is.

First things first - make sure the reports are correct. If you spot any mistakes or see any accounts listed that have been cleared or cancelled, it’s important to contact the credit agency immediately and correct any information that’s inaccurate or just plain wrong.

If there are amendments to be made, and if the agency agrees with them, they should be made quickly, though sometimes you will need to talk to the company that originally filed the information.

Occasionally a credit agency may refuse to amend your file - in this case you are entitled to add your own comments as a “notice of correction”. These extra comments may mean your credit applications take longer to process, but your explanations may also help you to get better deals.

As well as ensuring there are no mistakes on your credit report, there are plenty of other ways you can improve it, including:

Cancel old or unused credit cards - Don’t just cut up old cards and forget about them - call up your provider and ensure that your account is closed. Then give the credit ratings agencies a call to check it has been removed from your file

Get utility bills in your name - This shows that you have a fixed address

Pay your existing bills on time - This doesn’t just apply to credit cards or loans, but also gas, electricity and phone bills, as these are all types of credit. Use direct debit whenever possible to ensure you don’t miss any payments

Make sure you are on the electoral roll - If lenders can find you on the electoral register, this will improve your credit rating

3. Fill in the application form carefully

Application forms provide lenders with a lot of personal information they need about you, including your age, address, marital status and salary. It’s important to take time to fill in your application form and double-check it before you submit it, as mistakes or discrepancies on the form could affect your chances of being approved.

4. Apply selectively

If you need credit, it’s important that you don’t apply for lots of products in a small space of time. This will make you look desperate, or possibly even fraudulent, and will damage your credit rating.

Pick the products you apply for carefully and, if you need to make multiple applications, ensure there is a decent interval between each one.

When choosing which credit cards to apply for, the chief considerations are always the annual percentage rate (APR) as well as any 0% balance or purchase deals and special offers.

However, if you want to improve your chances of being approved, there are a couple more things to think about:

Your bank knows you - If you have a good history with a particular bank - for example if you have held a current account that’s in credit for some years, and they can see you have regular incomings - they may be more likely to approve your application for credit. So if your current bank offers competitive deals, this may be a good place to start.

Having said that, data protection laws limit the amount of information that different groups within a company can share with each other, so the credit department may not necessarily have access to details of the other products you have within the same bank.

Different banks use different credit rating agencies - Different lenders use different combinations of reports from the three main credit ratings agencies. If you know what is on each of your credit reports, you could adapt your applications and apply to lenders that you know will check your best-looking report. Check out the table in the FasanoFinance.co.uk credit rating agencies guide, which shows which ratings agencies lenders use.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that, while you don’t want to look like you’re inundated with credit, having some kind of credit and managing it properly shows you can cope with credit and are reliable, while having no credit history at all can be detrimental to your application.

So, above all else, the secret of establishing a good credit rating is to be careful about what you borrow and make sure you pay it back.

Thursday, 8 March 2012

The Best Business Credit Cards for UK Business

Visit www.fasano.co.uk

The Best Business Credit Cards For UK Businesses

Sign Up Free @ Fasano.co.uk

There are many advantages to using a business credit card for the expenses associated with your business. Business credit cards can help you build credibility, manage accounts, sort out employee expenses and give your business the same kind of cashback and loyalty rewards that you receive on your personal credit card.

It's true. A few years back, the credit card companies began getting competitive in the field of personal credit cards. They started offering airline miles, hotel stays, cash back and other rewards to customers who used their credit cards to pay for purchases. Now the competition is heating up in the business credit cards market, and those same types of rewards are beginning to show up in loyalty programmes aimed at busineses.

Of course, the loyalty programmes are tailored toward the sorts of rewards that are most valuable to your business. Those include the typical airline and hotel miles - after all, the large majority of UK travel is still for business rather than pleasure. Why shouldn't your business reap the rewards of frequent purchases? But there are other business credit card rewards being offered as well - rewards that can help your company cut expenses on products that you use - office supplies, petrol for your company cars and other business expenses of the sort.

If you're looking for the best business credit card for your business, we can help. The easy to read charts make it easy to compare business credit cards, and the informative articles and credit card reviews can help you easily choose the credit card that will be best for your business.

Useful link

30 FREE Credit Check Trial

Savings Accounts and Bonds

Sources: FASANO UK, legal and Financial Independent Experts
and FININVEST, Finance and Investmensts

Monday, 20 February 2012

How to sell unwanted presents

How to sell your stuff

Christmas comes but once a year, and when it comes it frequently brings with it a load of tat that you wouldn't be seen dead with. Here's how to off-load it.

Whether they're well-meant gifts from friends and family that miss the mark or hastily grabbed goods foisted on you as part of an office secret Santa or by an irritating in-law, almost everyone gets something they don't want for Christmas.

In fact, even the perfect gift can still result in spare goods in the house, if an old games console or other item is replaced by the shiny new version.

Selling the undesirable or redundant items means you can use the cash to get what you wanted all along - or make a dent in the Christmas debt - so where do you go to get the most cash?

Here are the sites I use and what I think of them.

eBay

This is the daddy of the online auction sites, achieving that pinnacle of internet success: becoming a verb: "I eBayed it." This is a great place to sell as the auction system encourages buyers to compete which can drive up your price.

For example, I received a popular promotional toy with my car insurance recently and put it on eBay. To my surprise (and delight) it turned out to be a collector's item and I got £50, less my fees. Simples.

But, while eBay is simple to use and popular, it can be an expensive way to your stuff. You pay insertion fees which are based on your starting price (free for a starting price of up to 99p, up to £1.30 if it's more than £100); final value fees of 10% (up to a maximum of £40); and there are extra fees if you want to use special features like international visibility.

If you don't expect a bit of a bidding war, it can be better to go elsewhere.

Preloved

It's free to place a basic advert on Preloved, so it's a popular site. Most of the items for sale are, as the name suggests, second hand. So you're advertising at customers that are happy to buy something that's already been used.

Another perk is that it shows members local adverts, so it's easier to arrange delivery.

But this is where I failed to sell my wedding dress and I think that's because I haven't paid. Sellers who pay for premium membership (£25 for 12 months), are given priority, receiving twice as many views as free customers. That can make it hard to sell in the more popular categories.

Amazon

This is one of the most popular sites on the internet, meaning you have the chance to sell to millions of shoppers. It's not just an outlet for professional retailers, casual sellers can use it too.

While Amazon is no longer a website for simply selling books, it is one of the first places many people turn for literature. That makes it a great place to sell off old university books, unwanted Christmas bestsellers, that kind of thing.

But you can also sell DVDs, computer games, musical instruments, baby equipment — pretty much anything as long as it's already listed on the site. If it isn't, you have to provide its EAN, UPC, or ISBN code, so you can't sell anything you've made yourself.

When a customer buys it, you have to deliver the item before receiving payment from the website. You also have to despatch it within a set number of days.

Fees are quite high for individual sellers, at 86p to list an item plus a closing fee of 17.25% of the sale price.

musicMagpie

If you want to sell off old CDs, DVDs or computer games then musicMagpie has made it as easy as possible.

Rather than selling to a human and facing the hassle of haggling and arranging collection or delivery, you key in the barcodes from each of your CDs (or you can scan them if you have a smartphone and the right app).

Then the site tells you what it's prepared to pay and, if you're happy, you post your stuff off for free. The website tells me that one customer recently sold his collection of 3,000 CDs for £2,000.

Most CDs sell for less than £1, so this isn't necessarily the place to sell rare copies. But you don't have to agree to the website's prices, so it's definitely worth checking out.

It's definitely a hassle-free way to clear some shelf space, but you do risk selling your stuff for less than it's worth. It's also worth noting that the site can pay you less than it promised if it decides your discs are in less-than-perfect condition — and the Ts&Cs mean you can't do anything about it.

CeX

Like many avid gamers, my husband will buy the latest first-person shooter and play it solidly for three days. Then, when he's finished the plot and beaten/been beaten by his online friends, he'll trade it in for the next game.

He can go into town and swap it at a retailer but he won't know what price he's offered until he gets there.
So instead, he exchanges them on the CeX website, which gives you either cash or credit for your old games and consoles. It's fairly transparent — each item has a "buy for", "sell for" and "exchange" price beneath it, so you can see if you're losing out by selling it this way.

Obviously CeX, and websites like it, need to make money, so you will earn less than you could probably make selling your item independently. But it does let you see the mark-up and make an informed choice about whether to sell elsewhere.

Carboot

Don't discount an old-fashioned car-boot sale, especially if you've had a major clear-out and want to sell a lot of varied stuff in one go.

My sister paid for a holiday by selling unwanted possessions at different car-boot sales. In fact, she was so enthusiastic that she sold some possessions she still wanted by people after they were accidentally left in her home; for several months nothing was safe.

She found that clothes sold very quickly, while people were a bit more hesitant about buying second-hand electrical goods like hairdryers.

Her top tip is to have a clear price in mind for each item but be prepared to drop it rather than cart loads of stuff home. She was also surprised at the number of thieves operating at these sales, so make sure you watch your table closely.

Safe selling

Lots of penny pinchers will be buying and selling through second-hand websites, to get the best deals out there. The trouble with arranging sales online is that you are more at risk of being targeted by fraudsters.
Take great care when making or receiving payments, and never hand over an item until you have the money. Some crooks can reverse payments after they've appeared in your bank account, so ask to be paid in cash wherever possible.

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Saturday, 27 August 2011

Credit card giants go to war over balance transfers

Credit card companies are caught in a head-to-head battle to try to bring out the longest 0% balance transfer period.

Halifax has now extended its 0% balance transfer period from 20 months — which for a short time was the longest period on offer on the market — to 22 months on its Balance Transfer credit card, narrowly beating the 21-month offer Barclaycard brought out last Friday.

However, Barclaycard quickly matched Halifax and extended this to 22 months with its Barclaycard Platinum card.

As an extra sweetener, if you apply directly through the Barclaycard site you will get a £20 refund.

Although both cards offer the same time frame for the 0% balance transfer, the deal from Halifax comes with a hefty fee of 3.5%, while Barclaycard has managed to keep fees at 2.9%.

Meanwhile, Barclaycard has withdrawn its 24-month 0% balance transfer period card, which saw 30,000 applications since launch, the equivalent of one every minute — and replaced it with the shorter deal.

[Useful: Compare 0% balance transfer cards]

Other deals

Just behind Barclaycard and Halifax is Virgin, with its 19-month 0% balance transfer period and 2.49% fee.

The length of time 0% balance transfer periods last has doubled in the past five years, according to Defaqto, but these deals are usually restricted to new customers.

David Black, spokesperson for Defaqto, says: "The credit card market abounds with some very attractive offers but it remains the case that the best deals are aimed at new customers. Therefore, those with good credit ratings have a real incentive to change their credit card on a regular basis and should ensure that they choose a card that matches their likely usage."

Balance transfers explained

Q: What is a balance transfer?

A: A balance transfer means you effectively switch the debt from a card with a high interest rate to a card with a 0% balance transfer and while the balance transfer period exists you won't be paying any interest on the debt.

Q: How do I qualify for one?

A: The best deals are for new customers and especially those with a good credit rating. Many card providers will automatically reject you if you already have one of its products, or if you have done in the past 12 to 18 months.

Q: What are the costs involved?

A: You will have to pay a fee of about 3% and some providers have a minimum amount you must transfer. When choosing a card, first work out if the balance transfer fee is worth paying in relation to the amount of debt you have.

Q: What should I watch out for?

A: When the introductory period ends you may be hit with higher than average interest rates. At this point, it may be worth moving the debt over to another card with a balance transfer period (if you are eligible) or if you've cleared the debt changing to another card altogether with a lower interest rate.

Thursday, 21 July 2011

Capital One to buy ING's online banking unit

Capital One said Thursday it would buy ING Direct, the online banking unit of ING, in a $9 billion deal that would transform it into the fifth-largest US bank in terms of deposits.

"Capital One will acquire ING Direct from ING Groep (Amsterdam: INGA.AS - news) in a stock and cash transaction valued at $9.0 billion," the US bank said in a statement announcing its deal with Amsterdam-based ING.

"Upon closing, Capital One will become the fifth largest depository institution and the leading direct bank in the United States."

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