refinance vs credit card timing

I'm looking at applying for some credit cards with bonus points/perks as I'll be spending up a bit in next few months (appliances for reno etc). But at same time I'm looking at refinancing and getting best deal as I turn an IP loan to PPOR loan.

I"m worried getting new credit cards and showing high recent spend (even if it's being paid off in time) will not look great when applying for loans. But at same time I can't wait till after new loan is in place before needing to spend.

anyone have ideas or similar situations ? Can I apply for a PPOR loan to start later (in a month or so) so the paperwork submitted now doesn't have the increased spend ?

 

In the pre-APRA days they didn't give a crap about how good you were with paying it back, or if you even used it. I had CC's that were literally never used. So the only lever you had was to cancel them / reduce the limits.

These days with responsible lending though I'm not sure. Maybe they do care about it. One of the brokers here should be able to chime in.

 

Will affect borrowing since they assess the limit in capacity and also servicing whether its drawn down or not. Apply for loan firts. Wait. Then card. Broker may even see what deal a card can get with loan.

 

Is this a post-APRA / responsible lending thing?

I distinctly recall my brokers telling me in the old days that it was irrelevant whether I only used like $100 on the card every now and again, they only looked at the limit.

 

thanks for comments. Although you would think its quite common for someone who just bought a house to need to spend more during that time to prepare the place to move into. And given a history of low spend and no missed debt payments, that would be considered in determining long term servicing ability

 

What are the perks these days? I can’t imagine Qantas/virgin points being that enticing with the current environment.

 

The no missed payments works in your favour but the 'history of low spending' won't be factored in if you've recently increased spending.
With Credit Cards though, it doesn't matter how much you spend on the card or not, banks treat the card based on the credit limit not the balance owing, so it honestly doesn't make a difference whether you're paying the card off each month or not. If you have a card with a credit limit of $10K but don't even use the card the banks will load the credit limit as $10K and apply a minimum monthly repayment to their servicing calculations.

 

Whats a flight?, let alone frequent ?

 

just saving it up for 2022.... the lounge passes dont' mean much this year. Will be spending anyway, might as well get some points and it won't be often such a splurge happens