Vanquis Credit Card

i had a 12 pound charge slapped on because i exchanged some goods at a shop but they charged for the new items (taking me over my limit) before refunding the returned goods, rang and explained and it was removed with no fuss at all, yes high interest rates but at least you can speak to somebody on the other end of the phone instead of an autonamon in india

This card charges very high interest rates, but they offer cards to people that no other lenders would touch with a bargepole. They're taking a high risk giving you a card if you have bad credit history, thats why nobody else will give you one because at the end of the day your going to Vanquis because the mainstream lenders have declined you because your credit reference is bad and you havent got a good history of repayment and usually defaults where you have failed to pay your commitments previously.

This is unfortunate on those of us whose records are bad because of bank charges etc, but with the law firmly in the bankers court when it comes to legal rights to report what they like whether its true or not, its unlikely to change.

Vanquis start by giving you a small limit like £250 then they will increase it if you want it after 6,12, 18 months etc if you are keeping up with repayments. They report good and bad to the credit agencies whereas most only report bad stuff so if you get a card you can slowly help to create some 'good' credit history.

They seem polite enough when you phone them, although it is a premium rate 0870 number which takes a few minutes of recorded BS to get through to anyone human.

If you need a card for internet or whatever then this is good if you can pay off the balance quickly, but because of the high interest rates (approx 40-45%) it is not recommended to carry a big balance and just pay minimum payment.

vanquis are fine, but just hope you dont run into financial trouble like we did when I was made redundant, they harass you non stop phoning 3-4 times a day, even when they tell you your account is on hold, about an hour or 2 later they will ring again, they rack up the charges like they are going out of fashion.
their payment protection isnt worth a w**k either.

So although yes they will probably give you a card when no one else will, just be sure you can make the minimum payments if you were in financial difficulty!

Vanquis rates are high,but if you can pay the balance in full each time it's well worth it, think the most I've been charged is £1.
I got my card in May last year they started me off with £250 credit limit, that went up to £500 in a cple of months, in this statement it has went up again to £1,250 if I dont want this limit they will drop it back down I just need to call them, they do tend to get bad feedback with the interest rate being extremely high !but if your responsible enough to use this card wisely then I would certainly recommend it, especially those looking to rebuild credit