Use our UK Finance guide and learn by experience. We outline pitfalls so that you don't have to learn the hard way, as many of us often do.
Credit Cards
Credit Card Hopping
We all have done it some time in our life and if you haven’t you will trust me. I am defiantly guilty or credit card hopping; I did it for at least 2 years while living in the UK. I have even gone as far as to brag about it and persuade some of my fiends to try it as it definitely helps with keeping the credit card loan payments at a minimum. I was giving it a little more thought the other day and decided to do a little investigating and honestly in short you might be scoring but it will definitely hurt you in the long term.
Card hopping will in the long term damage your credit rating. Rate shopping creates extra enquiries into your credit history and makes you look desperate for credit. When looking for a mortgage or a personal loan, creditors will look at your credit history and there decision will be based the way you have handled your credit in the past. Changing creditors every six months will increases risk scores, thus harming you chance at a better mortgage or personal loan.
Car hopping does contribute to a negative trend in the industry, but I have found personally that even with this trend towards greater fees credit issuers are working harder now days to retain there customers. The last time I contacted my credit card issuer to cancel my account they were more than happy to negotiate a better deal including offering to extend my interest free period.
