Any idea how to get accepted for the Avios Rewards CC?

[Bluebirdnick]

Hi all

I’ve just pre-checked my eligibility for the credit card but I am told I’ve got a 0% chance. Same goes for any amex.
So I tried it for my wife too, and again – she has a 0% chance of getting the Barclays CC (although she’s got a good chance with an amex).

My credit score is very good. Same is true for my wife. I did take out a new credit card quite recently for other reasons so I currently have 2 credit cards with quite large credit limits. I am hoping to cancel one of them today. My wife has a credit card she’s had for years. We’ve never struggled to get credit cards before.

ANy idea what the problem is, and what I can do to improve things in time before the 100k avios offer expires? Thanks!

[Bluebirdnick]

I should add I do have a basic Barclays bank account and a mortgage with them too. So they do know me.

[Rob]

I’d be tempted to apply regardless and forget to mention your current account. Back in March this definitely worked for a lot of Premiers who were being rejected.

However …..

Times are getting tough. People are struggling. You just applied for a credit card and now you’re applying for another. You don’t need the world’s greatest AI supercomputer to draw a conclusion about you, albeit erroneously.

[Bluebirdnick]

Thanks Rob. On that last point – I might as well wait a few weeks before the cancellation of one of my cards shows up on my credit report. My wife hasn’t applied for one for years so I’ve no idea what her issue is!

[duggie1982]

I was zero chance for the BC avios back when released but applied anyway and got it

[Bluebirdnick]

bit of a random bump but I finally applied and I did get the card. I did as Rob suggested above and forgot my current account and now I’ve got two customer IDs. Do I need to merge them so Barclays can join the dots here? My guess is that this requires manual intervention from CS, and that this will therefore be time-consuming? My wife applied and was also accepted.

[ClubSmed]

FYI
Don’t cancel credit cards and expect to have your credit rating increase, the opposite will happen. A factor that is taken into consideration when assessing your score is how much unused credit you have available to you, with the higher the amount being better.
You state that you have a very good credit score, but how have you measured this? To get a good picture you should check your score via all three credit scoring agencies. This can be done free of charge via Experian, ClearScore (for Equifax) and Credit Karma (for TransUnion).
I was certainly very surprised how I was viewed by the other agencies when I had a score of 999 with Experian.

[RebeccaLondon]

Bluebirdnick wrote:

bit of a random bump but I finally applied and I did get the card. I did as Rob suggested above and forgot my current account and now I’ve got two customer IDs. Do I need to merge them so Barclays can join the dots here? My guess is that this requires manual intervention from CS, and that this will therefore be time-consuming? My wife applied and was also accepted.

I had this issue and it took nearly four weeks to get sorted. THE CS agents try their best but the tech is a nightmare. Currently I’ve ticked every box (after four phone calls, many useless chat functions and a free reinstalls of the app) and I’m still ineligible for the bonus avios as I don’t have the app installed (I do have the app installed). Absolute shit show. Unsure I want to continue with fighting for the points.

[Bluebirdnick]

Thanks for that- helpful (if worrying!)

I messaged them last night to say I fear they’ve set my CC account up on a new customer ID; and please can they merge the IDs and move my CC account into the Barclays app.

I just checked and was pleasantly surprised to see my CC account in the Barclays app. They have messages to say:

1) yes I had two IDs
2) yes they have included the CC account in the Barclays app
3) I need to activate my CC in order to allow them to merge the customer IDs

I can’t activate yet as I’ve not received the card and so don’t have the 3 digit number, but it all feels like it is sort-of going in the right direction. Is this consistent with your experience? Thanks

[Luca M]

FYI: Credit Score does not mean anything, it is a marketing ploy by Credit Reference Agency to sell you some of their services.

It is true that may be an indication of something going on on your credit file (which is what counts) but no lender will ever see your Credit Score.

What they do see is how many accounts you have (cannot actually see the lender offering them), when each was open, credit limit and balances, payments against it (with details of how much is repaid and whether is paid on time).

All this info is then Assessed by each lender according to their own parameters/algorithm to decide to offer or not a credit line and limit.

For someone without a strong credit history applying for cards in a short period of time and/or having too large credit limits may be seen as a risk factor.

[JDB]

ClubSmed wrote:

FYI
Don’t cancel credit cards and expect to have your credit rating increase, the opposite will happen. A factor that is taken into consideration when assessing your score is how much unused credit you have available to you, with the higher the amount being better.
You state that you have a very good credit score, but how have you measured this? To get a good picture you should check your score via all three credit scoring agencies. This can be done free of charge via Experian, ClearScore (for Equifax) and Credit Karma (for TransUnion).
I was certainly very surprised how I was viewed by the other agencies when I had a score of 999 with Experian.

It’s utter nonsense to suggest “how much unused credit you have available to you, with the higher the amount being better”. People are consistently getting refused for having too much unsecured credit. Card providers are unsurprisingly getting much pickier and having excessive credit on multiple cards is a major red flag.

[ClubSmed]

JDB wrote:

ClubSmed wrote:

FYI
Don’t cancel credit cards and expect to have your credit rating increase, the opposite will happen. A factor that is taken into consideration when assessing your score is how much unused credit you have available to you, with the higher the amount being better.
You state that you have a very good credit score, but how have you measured this? To get a good picture you should check your score via all three credit scoring agencies. This can be done free of charge via Experian, ClearScore (for Equifax) and Credit Karma (for TransUnion).
I was certainly very surprised how I was viewed by the other agencies when I had a score of 999 with Experian.

It’s utter nonsense to suggest “how much unused credit you have available to you, with the higher the amount being better”. People are consistently getting refused for having too much unsecured credit. Card providers are unsurprisingly getting much pickier and having excessive credit on multiple cards is a major red flag.

I suggest you should have done a Google search for “refused for having too much available credit” before making such a claim. The results that come back from the experian blog states “There’s no such thing as too much available credit when it comes to your credit score” and on the next result Nerd Wallet says “It’s not possible to have too much available credit on your credit cards.”

[Bluebirdnick]

JDB wrote:

FYI
Don’t cancel credit cards and expect to have your credit rating increase, the opposite will happen. A factor that is taken into consideration when assessing your score is how much unused credit you have available to you, with the higher the amount being better.
You state that you have a very good credit score, but how have you measured this? To get a good picture you should check your score via all three credit scoring agencies. This can be done free of charge via Experian, ClearScore (for Equifax) and Credit Karma (for TransUnion).
I was certainly very surprised how I was viewed by the other agencies when I had a score of 999 with Experian.

I didn’t ever get around to cancelling the old card. My aggregate credit limit is now ridiculous.

A bit annoyed I paid attention to moneysavingexpert really, who told me I had no chance of getting the card. I didn’t apply for the recent plat amex deal for the same reason – probably left value on teh table there too.

[JDB]

@ClubSmed you will find there is a world of difference between what Experian says and any credit score vs real life applications. Barclays as by far the largest credit card provider in the UK has vast amounts of proprietary credit data and does not like lots of unsecured credit lines elsewhere. Amex is the same currently per many recent comments here.

[ClubSmed]

JDB wrote:

@ClubSmed you will find there is a world of difference between what Experian says and any credit score vs real life applications. Barclays as by far the largest credit card provider in the UK has vast amounts of proprietary credit data and does not like lots of unsecured credit lines elsewhere. Amex is the same currently per many recent comments here.

It isn’t just Experian giving that message, it is ALL 3 of the credit reference agencies!
As to your specific claim, I had ~£90k of access to credit card funds and applied for Amex 2 months ago and was successful and now have >£100k access.
The OP states that they did not cancel existing access to credit card funds and got accepted for a Barclaycard and now has a “ridiculous” amount of available credit.
So which should we choose to believe? The credit reference agencies and the evidence, or some random person venting on this thread?