DON’T BE BAMBOOZLED BY THESE CREDIT CARD MYTHS

You provided will get to just the 51 advertised per cent of teaser successful APR applicants, In fact, teaser meaning rates you are are often likely to be offered a worse rate if your credit score is not quite up to scratch.

Credit reference agencies decide whether you get a card Not true – it’s the lender that decides according to their own criteria but a decision is based on information provided by you and a credit reference agency. If you’ve previously been a customer they can factor that in too. Closing an unused credit card will boost my credit

score It might have the opposite effect. Removing the unused credit from credit score calculations is likely to increase your credit “utilisation” percentage, which could knock valuable points off your credit score. Setting up my partner as an additional cardholder will link up our credit reports Credit cards do not create financial connections because they are simply not joint credit. If you allow someone else to become an additional cardholder on your account, you remain completely responsible for how the account is run and it will have no impact on their credit score. You must build up card debt to get a decent credit

score Credit cards can be a great way to build your credit score, unless you max them out and/or miss regular payments. If you can’t trust yourself to not get into problem debt on a card you shouldn’t take one out – certainly not as a ploy to improve your credit score. Importantly, as far as credit scores are concerned, the lower your card balance, the better.