Build Credit Rating Scoring with just GBP1 (Capital One)

Member Name: casper77

Product:	Capital One
Date:	29/10/01 (832 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Credit Building

Disadvantages: Expensive, Not too intelligent customer service

Capital One Premier is a good card for people who have no credit history and wish to get a credit card so that their credit performance can be properly recorded.

I will keep it brief here due to limited space and for ease of update reason. http://www.mycoupon.freeuk.com/creditscoring.htm

The sceneario in UK is very much different from the USA where there are many secured credit cards where one can deposit some money and secure those money against the card. These cards are great as they are easy to get (as there is no risk to the lender) and allow one to rebuild one's credit because by credit card ownership is one of the major criteria when lender decides whether to lend or not to lend. Woolwich used to have one but unfortunately they do not issue those cards anymore. Therefore, Capital One is now the only credit issuer in UK who will issue a credit card to anyone regardless of credit history by setting the suitable APR.

The whole game about credit scoring is all about having some history being recorded in the credit reference agency file. And Capital One Bank is brilliant in this area as they diligently report your credit performance to the credit reference agency. So, if you maintain your account well, you will see lots of (0 - i.e. paid on time, A+ grade) on your credit file and your credit rating will shot up in no time. Some other banks particularly the big high street banks often neglect to report one's good performance to the credit rating agency and hence actually make one loose out.

The way to invest just £1 and get a good credit rating is descirbed as the following. As it is expensive to use Capital One card (about 30% APR!), so the best thing to do is not to used it. However, if you don't use it at all and the balance is zero, then no statement will be issued and no footprint will be recorded in the credit reference agency file and that will not help you. What you can do is to overpay £1 on your first sta
tement and leave it there. Since there is a credit balance on the card, statements will continued to be issued and as you don't owe them money, you will always be reported as "repaid on time" every month. After several months, you would have built up a credit records that will allow you to obtain a better credit card elsewhere or bargain with Capital One for a better interest rate. Also, since you always "repaid on time", they will also refund you your annual fee (assuming that offer is till on. Check their website).

Comments welcome... Hope this will be useful.

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