Choose Your Next Credit Card Wisely

April 13, 2006

By Peter Kenny

When you apply for a credit card the lender asks a credit reference agency for details on your credit history. This file contains details on your previous credit dealings.

Your credit file is probably the most important aspect of your application. You could be turned for your credit card if you have previously had problems with your credit. A past history of late payments, defaults or even too many credit applications during a short space of time can have an adverse effect.

There are a few credit reference agencies that are used and it is possible that each agency carries different information on your credit report.

It is possible to plan ahead when applying for a credit card when you know which credit reference agency will be used. Not only can this be advantageous to your credit card application but it could also help you in the long run if you have had a poor credit history.

Anyone can send away for details of their credit report, this usually costs £2 and is money well spent. Once you have your credit report from each of the credit reference agencies you will be able to pinpoint problem areas. Now the next step is to know which lenders use which credit reports! You could actaully choose a credit card based on which credit reference agency they use.

There are three main credit reference agencies Experian, Equifax and CallCredit.

You will find below a list of credit card suppliers and whom they use for credit reports:

Supplier	Credit Card	Experian	Equifax	CallCredit
MBNA	MBNA platinum Plus MBNA Points Virgin money Alliance and Leicester Abbey National breakthough breast cancer british heart foundation BMF Childline Unicef WWF Ryanair Thomas cook BMI Ski Club GB Star trek Sonycard toys R US homebase Williams F1 World superbikes Honda racing GB rugby league Cheshire Building Society Melton Mobray Building Society BikeCard Most football clubs
Morgan Stanley	Morgan Stanley Platinum Morgan Stanley Buy & Fly! Morgan Stanley Gold Morgan Stanley I24 Leeds & Holbeck Black Horse Goldfish
Co-operative Bank	Co-op Bank Platinum Tracker Co-operative Bank Advantage Co-operative Bank Clear Co-operative Bank Dividend Co-operative Bank Flat Rate Platinum Co-operative Bank Platinum Advantage Co-operative Bank Travel Co-operative Gold Advantage Co-operative Gold Base Rate Co-operative Gold Flat Rate Amnesty International Barnardo's Childrens Aid Society Greenpeace Help the Aged Labour party visa Liberal Democrat Visa Medical Foundation Oxfam visa Ramblers Association Save the Children Smile Stroud & Swindon Yorkshire BS
Lloyds TSB	Create Card More Than Easy Money Scottish Widows Texaco card Lloyds TSB Advance Lloyds TSB Platinum Lloyds TSB Premier CashBack
Royal Bank Of Scotland	Tesco Mint Lombard Direct Ulster Bank NatWest
HSBC	First Direct HSBC Marks & Spencers Marbles GM card John Lewis
HBOS	Amazon Britannia Carphone Warehouse Cancer Research Halifax IF (Intelligent Finance) NSPCC Sainsbury
Egg	All Egg
Barclays	All Barclaycard
American Express	All American Express
Bank Of Ireland	Bank Of Ireland Post Office
Capital One	All Capital One
CitiBank	Citi Card BMIBaby
GE Capital	GE Money Asda

Contact details for the main credit reference agencies:

Experian
PO BOX 7710
Nottingham
NG80 7WE
Tel - 0800 656 9000 (Mon-Fr 9am-6pm, Sat 9am-1pm)

Equifax Credit File Advice Centre
P.O. Box 1140
Bradford
BD1 5US

CallCredit
One Park Lane
Leeds
West Yorkshire
LS3 1EP
telephone - 0113 244 1555