Getting a Credit Card with Rewards (or building Credit Fast)

[gopher]

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I moved to the UK in September, and with it my Business. As I'm spending upwards of $100,000 a month, I was thinking about getting a credit card with rewards and the Virgin Atlantic card looked like a good match (First Class flight each month, yay). Well unfortunately it seems I don't have build a credit history yet, so I'm out of luck ..

Does anyone know if I can get a secured Credit Card (WITH Rewards) or any other Debit/Credit Card that will give me good rewards (enough to offset the roughly 3% foreign currency charges)? And if there isn't, whats the best way to build up my credit really fast? I already got a cell phone and mobile broadband from tmobile that I'm paying on time (go me) each month. Would it help to get one of those credit cards for people with poor credit and put all my spending on that each month? It better affect the score fast though, as I'm not too keen on dropping $3-5k each month just because it's USD charges. Or are there any business credit cards with rewards that I could maybe get?

Basically I just want to get a card with rewards where I can put my ad spend on, I don't care whether its debit, credit or prepaid, or how high the charges are (besides the ones for foreign currency charges), as I'm paying it off in full each month.

Thanks!

[tbp]

Unfortunately, it does take a while to change your credit rating, its not something that happens in a month or two, and because of the Northern Rock fiasco and general economic situation the lenders are becoming a lot stricter.

You could apply for a credit card, such as a beginners one or bog standard one, but you would have to use it for around 6 months at least for it to make a noticeable difference to your credit score. This is purely because the payments are monthly, and they want to make sure that you pay on time more than once or twice, so you need to build up a regular pattern. Don't go for the credit cards for bad credit, as the APR's are really high 30% - 40%. There are cards out there for people with no, or limited, credit history and these have a slightly better APR around 15% - 30%. Use the cards for a while, and the credit card company will up your credit limit voluntarily usually. Just don't keep the card spent right up to the limit all the time.

Don't go mad applying for credit though, more than 2 or 3 things in the space of a couple of months can actually worsen your credit score as it looks like you are desparate for money, and so unlikely to be able to pay it back.

The most important thing is that you pay everything on time, all the time. Just one or two late or missed payments can count against you at the moment, where as it wouldn't of not so long ago. It helps to pay a sum greater than the minimum payment by direct debit each month, so you can't forget, or payment gets delayed in the post for example.

[gopher]

Meh. And there are no secured credit cards?

[gopher]

Ok, I just found the perfect alternative for me, which actually saves me 1-2% as well: The American Express International Dollar Card: $1 = 1 MR Point, and I can exchange those 1:1 for Virgin Atlantic Miles. Plus they have different credit score criteria than "standard" UK credit cards.

[tbp]

Glad you got a solution to this.

Sorry, I know about credit in general, but not about specific cards, so wasn't able to suggest any.

[gopher]

No problem, this was a first for me as well. It's hard getting used to having no credit history, after having perfect credit for the last 4-5 years

Hopefully this will help other people as well, from reading other forums it does seem the Amex IDC isn't that well known (hell, they themselves didn't know about it either).