I don't even know what that is!
the electoral roll is like shaymin said a List of people eligbile to vote. you shoulda got a letter thru your door about Register To Vote or whatever? and they're all "arrghhh you gotta register to vote its important"
i mean voting is also important yes cos political apathy is the nation killer but its also needed for a credit rating and if you ever want to own a house one day. (mortgages are like credit cards: hard mode)
its important to be on there if you want to build a credit rating cos they'll look to that to see if you Verifiably Exist as a person if you're not on the electoral roll the credit agencies will most likely go 'huh maybe they're trying to con us with a fake name' and possibly reject you.
It dings? what, like a bell or something? Sorry if I sound ignorant, I don't know what that means.
nah i mean "dings" as in "negatively hits". kind of like "denting". i talk in dumb flowery language cos im literally r****ded and can't use Normal Words well
idk how credit ratings go for DSS (i dunno if thats the right acronym) but basically your credit rating is your Good (or Bad) Standing with the lending agencies, like how well (or not) you repay your debts and whether its on time, etc. basically its your "if you borrow this money, how likely are you gonna be to pay it back and are we gonna be able to make a deece profit off you through the Interest?" which is the only thing the credit card companies care about.
(which is why having a credit card but never spending on it also negatively impacts your credit rating cos they're like "well we're not gonna make cash off you so why do we care?")
its complicated and i dont know the Details of it exactly but theres stuff that Improves your rating and Unimproves it, and applying for credit cards and being Rejected for them (it can happen even if you'd be Accepted normally) unimproves it. every time you apply for your credit card the company will consult the credit record (your 'how likely/how much profit?' thing) and them actually checking it leaves a record hich means if you're rejected for it that'll be seen on your rating and is a Warning to other places to perhaps err on the side of also rejecting them.
you will usually be accepted more easier for high APR cards (see below for APR explanation) or High Interest cards easily because most people are like "cool! a credit card!" and dont notice they'll have to pay horrific interest. i.e. they downplay "how likely are they able to pay it back" for turning up the "how much profit can we make" end of things.
conversely low interest credit cards are harder to get and you usually need a better "i took loans out and paid them back" record on your credit record. sites can do you a "soft check" where they test your eligibility for cards in a way that doesn't impact your credit rating, but thats for when you do stuff like credit card "tarting" as they call it (hopping between 0% APR introductory offers to keep your credit card debt from ever having interest, useful for if you want to keep your credit card bill from growing further) and you need to know who will and who wont.
its why if you apply for one and you're rejected you should give it a bit before applying for another, its like dealing with a dodgy ex and being too quick on the updraw makes you look desperate and lame to them.
given you're on DSS that might put you in that awkward category with Students lendingwise, i.e. not really a Strong Money Earning lot and not really doing stuff like working and making cash money, which means they may not be keen to give you credit cards
I'm in the UK. I don't know what APR is, I feel like I'm totally clueless about everything.
not at all, the banks make their money out of keeping people clueless about the process, wouldn't you know it.
APR is Annual Percentage Rate or really a kind of Financial-ese way of sayin "monthly interest".
basically with an APR of a card you got the amount you've spent on the card, and you take the percentage the APR is, divide that by twelve (to take it from Annual to Monthly) and each month that interest will be lumped onto your bill and you'll have to pay it. im gonna use colours here to keep track cos of brokebrain reasons
i.e. if you're
£500 in debt on your card and your APR is
19% then
19% of
£500 =
£95and then they will tack on
£95 per year / 12 =
£7.92. per month interest
you have to pay a "minimum amount" at least every month, which is based on the total amount you owe + the monthly interest.
so if you dont spend anything by the time your bill rolls around you will owe
£500 +
£7.92 =
£507.92. and will need to pay whatever the minimum payment for an amount of £507.92 is. (you can usually find this by lookin at the small print of your credit card agreement)
im no expert in economics (altho id like to learn the basics one day) but basically Interest and APR is how the lending agencies make money, bankers would never do this out the goodness of their own hearts lmao
theres a lot more to read on my personal fave resource for Boring Money Information stuff,
moneysavingexpert if you're a big dumb hell idiot nerd like i am and do ur budget in monthly spreadsheets and like to be Informed on boring adult life details and thriftiness. its a site for people who got themselves into stupid amounts of debt and often the forums are a bunch of people trying to save where they can so they can claw themselves out of debt hell but yeh . another good place to ask re: legalese to money stuff is ur local Citizens Advice Bureau
basically if you're trying to get stuff that can only be gotten with credit cards like certain places on the internet do then your best bet is the Prepaid Credit Card option for now.
well thats my Effortpost about boring financial details, thanks for reading.