Tesco credit card

wos

Hi,
looking to apply for a Tesco credit card and wondering what the experience of doing so has been like for others who have recently done so (could only seem to find some complaints about the application process from online posts a few years back)?

What supporting documentation do they look for (photo ID, payslips, bank statements, utility bills)?
Are originals required and how far back do they require (for bank statements etc)?
Do I need to include my existing credit card information if I do not wish to avail of a balance transfer?
Will slightly different addresses on bank statement and utility bills (e.g. Main Street / Main St.) cause a problem?

I cannot imagine it being as single online application form as the website would lead you to believe.

Thanks.

oEmmao

from what I can remember it was a straight forward enough procedure, i think i have my card about 2 years now

BobSmith128

Application is straightforward. A lot of questions from what I can remember.
Around two weeks later - you receive a posted form from Tesco which you need to complete and send back. I think at this point they ask you to send supporting documentation.
Then a further two weeks later another letter from Tesco requesting your signature which you need to send back.
So the processing time can be slow - I believe I was waiting for around 8 weeks since I began the online application process until I got my card in the post.

My balance on my card was very low to start with - ~950 euro - possibly because I had another credit card with a large limit or perhaps in general Tesco don't give high limits initially. Still you can get this increased after 1 year and then every six months after that - mines up to the ~4000 limit now which is more than enough and I can now retire my other credit card.

There is no online access to view your account - you need to ring their call centre and ask for it.
Register your clubcard account and you can view your transactions on your card via it - https://secure.tesco.ie/register/?from=https://secure.tesco.ie/clubcard/myaccount/home.aspx

Register with mybills.ie to pay off your card as well as setting up a direct debit to take 100%.
You can then choose to let the direct debit run or pay off the account manually as you wish.
Don't try to front load the card as the money will go into a holding account and not on to your card.
I tried to do this at the start when my limit was low and this is the answer I got.

Still even though with what some people will see this as hassle - the tesco vouchers is what it's all about.
Every purchase you make should be on the card and then pay off the full amount each month. You'll build up a nice amount of points - much more than you could ever do if just shopping in Tesco.
Then you use the clubcard boast to multiple the value of the vouchers.

I use all my vouchers for my Bord Gais bill - have saved around 375 euro off my gas bill in a 12 month period. Not bad.
If you use Tesco mobile its worth even more.

Possibly my only concern is that Tesco in the UK have reduced the number of points earned since the EU brought in legislation to limit the commission that can be earned on credit cards. As a result Tesco (like all credit card operators) are earning less commission and therefore don't have as much to pass on to their customers. This happened in the UK towards the end of 2015. However haven't seen any sign of this yet in Ireland - not sure if they proceed with a similar measure here - I would expect them to do so but no word yet.....

JTMan

BobSmith128 wrote: »

Possibly my only concern is that Tesco in the UK have reduced the number of points earned since the EU brought in legislation to limit the commission that can be earned on credit cards. As a result Tesco (like all credit card operators) are earning less commission and therefore don't have as much to pass on to their customers. This happened in the UK towards the end of 2015. However haven't seen any sign of this yet in Ireland - not sure if they proceed with a similar measure here - I would expect them to do so but no word yet.....

Yeah, it is weird that Tesco Bank have cut the rewards significantly for UK customers but not for Irish customers. Tesco Bank have being reducing the number of product lines that they offer Irish customers in recent years, one wonders if Tesco Bank will cut their credit card service in the near future.

CaSCaDe711

Hi folks.

Hopefully not too off-topic, recently got my Tesco credit card in the post and used for the 1st time this week. Would like to know have any of you successfully set up PTSB online banking as the payment method?

Got Tesco's BIC and IBAN details from here

but PTSB require the following:

Country of payee
Name on account
BIC
IBAN
Reference

My questions are can I use any name for Name on account (i.e is it solely for my benefit so I know what I'm paying into?)

and

will I use my credit card number in the Reference field, so Tesco know where the payment should go?

Thanks in advance.

mattaiuseire

Use:

Ireland
Tesco Credit Card
BIC
IBAN
Credit card number

CaSCaDe711

Thanks for the quick reply, much appreciated.

Yggr of Asgard

You might be better of using mybills.ie with your PTSB Visa Debit card, the amount you pay is credited faster to your Tesco Visa Card than via Bank Transfer.

At least in my experience.

paulers06

I found that the application process took a while. There were no issues but with sending stuff backwards and forwards I think the whole process took 6-8 weeks. Always find the call centre staff very nice to deal with.

I use mybills.ie and as Yggr of Asgard mentioned, it's credited way faster.

Have my Tesco card about 7 months now and find it great. I use it to pay for everything. Saving my points for a boat to France later in the year to fill the car with wine

mmooney1983

Just got a refusal letter in from Tesco after I applied for the credit card
Earn about 60k per year with joint mortgage 247,000 outstanding
No repayments missed
Last credit card no repayments missed and account closed last year as I didn't use it
So I applied for my credit rating and see Tesco rated me very highly... so I don't get it.
Probably better off without it anyway!

Atlantic Dawn

mmooney1983 wrote: »

Just got a refusal letter in from Tesco after I applied for the credit card
Earn about 60k per year with joint mortgage 247,000 outstanding
No repayments missed
Last credit card no repayments missed and account closed last year as I didn't use it
So I applied for my credit rating and see Tesco rated me very highly... so I don't get it.
Probably better off without it anyway!

You should apply for your credit report to see what that says...
http://www.icb.ie/cr_options.php

Yggr of Asgard

You also could do a request to tesco under the data protection act (6.35€ cost) which should show you all the data they used and give you a clear indication of why the refused you.

Such a request also lead to re re-evaluation of the decision so that they can avoid giving you your full data as it might include internal data sets.

I wish we had consumer protection laws that would force banks to give you a clear message as to why the refuse you.

Fiskar

Nice to see refusals of credit for genuine reasons but your case seems OTT. In my case while I got the card they gave me only a fraction (45%) of the credit limit I had with AIB. I had to wait 1 full year for a review and now at up to 81% of the AIB credit limit.

Biggest issue I have with the account is that bills are posted and are not available to view online. I have told them on countless occasions that the posting of bills must be costing them money. Will possibly move to KBC where I believe you can see transactions on-line.

AlmightyCushion

Fiskar wrote: »

Nice to see refusals of credit for genuine reasons but your case seems OTT. In my case while I got the card they gave me only a fraction (45%) of the credit limit I had with AIB. I had to wait 1 full year for a review and now at up to 81% of the AIB credit limit.

Biggest issue I have with the account is that bills are posted and are not available to view online. I have told them on countless occasions that the posting of bills must be costing them money. Will possibly move to KBC where I believe you can see transactions on-line.

I couldn't ever consider a credit card without the facility to view my transactions online. How have they not brought this in by now?

Yggr of Asgard

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

I couldn't ever consider a credit card without the facility to view my transactions online. How have they not brought this in by now?

I don't think there are sufficient number of customers in Ireland to justify the cost of implementing it.

Let's be honest most people only have a tesco card for the points and with the new EU regulation they will have to cut them soon, so it will become even less interesting to the public.

The only reason they still have not cut the earning for Ireland in my opinion is that they fear they would loose further grocery market share if they cut the rates and giving how they continue to decline they don't want to risk that.

Yggr of Asgard

Fiskar wrote: »

Nice to see refusals of credit for genuine reasons but your case seems OTT. In my case while I got the card they gave me only a fraction (45%) of the credit limit I had with AIB. I had to wait 1 full year for a review and now at up to 81% of the AIB credit limit.

Biggest issue I have with the account is that bills are posted and are not available to view online. I have told them on countless occasions that the posting of bills must be costing them money. Will possibly move to KBC where I believe you can see transactions on-line.

Tesco are very conservative with their limits and if I would not shop so much at them to get enough return of it to cover way more than the Stamp Duty I would get ride of the card, but if you shop regularly at Tesco you can get good cash back.

The day my cash back is below the stamp duty the card will be canceled.

Arbie

Tesco have offered a credit limit of 8% of my current cards! My ICB is clear, cards paid off in full each month, etc. They tell me €1,000 is the standard limit now. No chance to increase limit for 12 months. Very disappointing.

Yggr of Asgard

Arbie wrote: »

Tesco have offered a credit limit of 8% of my current cards! My ICB is clear, cards paid off in full each month, etc. They tell me €1,000 is the standard limit now. No chance to increase limit for 12 months. Very disappointing.

Well with 12500 € limit on your other cards, do you really need another card with 30€ stamp duty?

Are you shopping that often at Tesco?

Arbie

Yggr of Asgard wrote: »

Well with 12500 € limit on your other cards, do you really need another card with 30€ stamp duty?

Are you shopping that often at Tesco?

We do get a lot of shopping & petrol there so it would certainly be worthwhile, but I'd planned to get rid of 2 other cards and use this instead. I didn't want the limits matched but €1,000 is too low for flights, hotels, etc. on family holiday. The funny thing is my finances are better now that when I got the other cards. How do they calculate these limits?

Yggr of Asgard

Arbie wrote: »

We do get a lot of shopping & petrol there so it would certainly be worthwhile, but I'd planned to get rid of 2 other cards and use this instead. I didn't want the limits matched but €1,000 is too low for flights, hotels, etc. on family holiday. The funny thing is my finances are better now that when I got the other cards. How do they calculate these limits?

No idea it does not make any sense, when I got the card in 2003 they also offered €1,000 to me to which I laughed and asked for reconsideration as it did not match my shopping habit. They did raise it substantially after 3 month of usage but since than it has been on the same limit it is now. Yes it's the same for over 12 years now.

I just shop too much at Tesco to close it and move on. I get way more out of than the pesky stamp duty, so I am happy with even the restrictions of no online banking.

Lenny

Yep, very strange with Tesco, I got a card last year, I got 3k limit, can't remember what I put down how much I earned, but during the late 12 months it was hard to stay within the limit, kept having to ring up to pay money to it, but it was causing problems by putting money towards a credit account, I can apply for a raise in a week or so, hope to raise it. I had an aib cc with 10K limit so I have kind of done away with that one,
Not being able to view the account online is a pain in d arse, u can login to your Tesco points and see the transaction so at least u can remember and then forget

mmooney1983

I got my credit bureau report immediately as I was so scared... Tesco rated me close to the highest score of 571

Yggr of Asgard

mmooney1983 wrote: »

I got my credit bureau report immediately as I was so scared... Tesco rated me close to the highest score of 571

Why would you think that Tesco rated you 571 from your ICB credit report?

571 of what?

The scores on your ICB report are done by the ICB and not Tesco.

The ICB has 3 different score methods (2 of their own cooking and 1 international FICO) and 571 is not possible with their own 2 and for FICO is very low.

You might want to check that again.

mmooney1983

Ok, sorry, as the rating was next to 'TESCO BANK' I presumed they had rated me
The history of enquiries is one line
DATE - TIME - INSTITUTION (Tesco Bank) - BRANCH NAME - (Credit cards) - ICB CRIF 3 (520) explained as lowest score/highest risk = 271 and highest score/lowest risk = 555

(571 was my typo, sorry)

So maybe I have this all wrong but I got 520/555... that's not good?
I have never missed a payment on anything so can't figure out where the 35 points went.

Yggr of Asgard

mmooney1983 wrote: »

Ok, sorry, as the rating was next to 'TESCO BANK' I presumed they had rated me
The history of enquiries is one line
DATE - TIME - INSTITUTION (Tesco Bank) - BRANCH NAME - (Credit cards) - ICB CRIF 3 (520) explained as lowest score/highest risk = 271 and highest score/lowest risk = 555

(571 was my typo, sorry)

So maybe I have this all wrong but I got 520/555... that's not good?
I have never missed a payment on anything so can't figure out where the 35 points went.

I see what you mean, what the line means is that the ICB provided Tesco Bank with the scores when Tesco requested your report.

The scoring is done by the ICB, as to why you are missing some points, ICB tries to explain here: http://www.icb.ie/pdf/Sample%20Credit%20Report.pdf

And all of the calculations are based on the arbitrary secret calculations that the score models do, you have not lost 35 points, you still can gain 35.

The scores are not only influenced by missed payments, they take into consideration the length you have the accounts, the available credit (against your limit), what accounts they are etc.

mmooney1983

Cool, that's really interesting. Don't particularly need the card but a few people recommended it for the points etc. Anyway I will leave it but certainly won't be applying for anything again for another 12 months. Thanks!

insullation

Points now reduced to 1 point for every 8 spent outside tesco on credit card

oEmmao

can you tell me where you read this please? i did a couple of transactions in the last few days and im still geting 1 point per 2euro spent on non-Tesco transactions.

insullation

Got letter in post yesterday...comes into effect 5th of October I think

JTMan

insullation wrote: »

Got letter in post yesterday...comes into effect 5th of October I think

Exactly. The Tesco Credit Card website will probably not be updated until5 October 2016.

I'm switching to KBC for my credit card.

lotsofthegreen

insullation wrote: »

Got letter in post yesterday...comes into effect 5th of October I think

A very sad day indeed! We run everything possible with this card (clearing monthly) with gas and electricity working out very cheap as a result.

It's still better than nothing but a 75% hit in its 'value'. Feckers better set us up online banking to compensate slightly!