Rejected but appealing - advice and comments welcome

GeorgeUK · 8 February 2010 at 1:26PM

Hello everyone :hello:
Don't pop over here much anymore.

Right, i successfully applied for an Egg card in November, but only got 2k limit. Not quite enough for my masterplan. I reduced the credit limit on my LTSB card by 5k and i had a Bank of Scotland credit card that i hadn't used for about 7 months so closed that in December (4.7k).

At the end of last month i applied for a new Bank of Scotland card and now have a rejection letter. I called up to see if they would tell me if there was anything wrong, but i need to check experian

I've already done the free experian one so will try the free Equifax report

When i send the appeal letter, should i send a copy of the equifax report?

Also my wage is slightly 'strange' as i quoted one value (which i asked the management and our pension people about). I don't mind sending in copies of my wage slips but i did a salary sacrifice for the pension - this means that the company pay the tax for everyone before it goes to the individual making a tax saving (something like that). I asked which wage should be quoted when making credit applications and was told to use the original - this is what wage increases would be calculated on too. So although the 'new' salary is less than the original the actual take home pay is more. I can explain that to them in the letter if you think i should put in the wage slips.

I was informed by 3 different members of staff when i was closing my account that there was no waiting period before your could reapply. So i don't think that this would be the problem - couldn't get any clues out of the girl i spoke to at card services as to why i may have failed this time.

Should i mention that they were happy for me to have a 4.7k credit limit jsut 2 months ago, or would this possibly count against me?

Any other tips or advice would be most welcome.
George

izools · 8 February 2010 at 1:43PM

It might be because of all the recent activity on your credit file - new Egg account, two very recently closed accounts - a lot of "Activity"... which may translate into debt stress as far as some credit scoring techniques go.

It may be worth waiting until there's been no significant changes to your credit file for six months before applying anywhere else

Have the two accounts actually been marked as satisfied on your credit file? How many applications have you made recently? If your applications have been with companies that search Experian, (Egg and HBOS do) it might be worth considering a credit card company that searches Equifax (Barclaycard) so they don't see your recent applications elsewhere... you can use Barclaycard's pre-application checker if you aren't sure:

https://letmechoose.barclaycard.co.uk/

Good luck!

CannyJock · 8 February 2010 at 2:01PM

GeorgeUK wrote: »

I reduced the credit limit on my LTSB card by 5k and i had a Bank of Scotland credit card that i hadn't used for about 7 months so closed that in December (4.7k).

At the end of last month i applied for a new Bank of Scotland card and now have a rejection letter. I called up to see if they would tell me if there was anything wrong, but i need to check experian

Reference to Experian is standard call centre meaningless reply.

Reducing limits and closing cards can take up to 2 months to be reported to CRA's, but good to mention in your appeal letter.

Salary difference I wouldn't bother with unless they ask in reply to your appeal letter.

Definitely worth appealing, won't do any harm.

GeorgeUK · 9 February 2010 at 12:41AM

I applied to egg in November - no applications for about a year prior to that.

Just looked at my Equifax report (although BoS said to check experian).
I am financially linked with my mother. It seems we have a mortgage.
My father is also George hence the confusion so i have asked equifax to amend this - at least that's something i can put in my letter.

Not sure what else to put though.

I will inform them that i reduced my LTSB credit limit by 5k and closed a BoS card i hadn't used for at least 7 months (4.7k) which may not have been updated at the time of their check. What else do i put though? I was going to give a copy of the latest statements from RBS, Egg and LTSB so they can see the balances and credit limits. Was only going to give them the first page of the statements though. Do i need to provide anything else?

I though about sending the last 3 months payslip, but then i'd need to explain the salary sacrifice and possibly also some paperwork for that.

On their site they say:

If we do decline your application we will tell you what information you will need to give us for an appeal and where to contact us.

But all the letter says is that if i have any additional information i can send it to them. Additional to what? I don't know what they've looked at so how do i know if there is any new information or what form it should take

(Okay, strop over)

If anyone can advise if what i propose to send seems adequate or if they would suggest sending something further, i'd appreciate the comments.
(Sending blanace sheet only from credit card statements (with a balance))
(Informing that 9.7k of credit may have come off a few days after they checked my file)

CannyJock · 9 February 2010 at 10:47AM

GeorgeUK wrote: »

Not sure what else to put though.

(Informing that 9.7k of credit may have come off a few days after they checked my file)

I wouldn't enclose any documentation with the first letter, but offer to send them all of the above, including proof of income, current bank statements, credit statements and copies of your credit reports. Explain the wrong mortgage association on Equifax but not on Experian, confirm that Equifax are in the process of correcting this.

Confirm that you had reduced your available credit by £9.7K, reducing the limit on one card and cancelling another.

Unless your salary has increased, I wouldn't confuse matters by trying to explain it - and if it has increased, I'd just confirm the increased amount.

Confirm how disappointed you are that a long-standing BoS customer, acting upon the advice of their customer services, cancelled a card in December to reapply as a new customer at the end of January only to be rejected with no meaningful reason being forthcoming.

Ask for the matter to be referred to a senior underwriter and offer a contact number for them to reach you on (they've never used it when I've offered it, but shows a willingness to speak to them to clarify anything).

EDIT: In my last appeal on a Tesco card, I took a different tactic when they asked me to confirm my income, basically took a "how very dare you" approach, pointed them to specific details on my credit report, told them I wouldn't be incurring the cost of chartered accountants letters for a pittance of the limit they offered and asked them to increase the limit to 10K. Couple of letters back and forwards and received the card with the 10K limit.

Cash_Flow · 9 February 2010 at 1:16PM

GeorgeUK wrote: »

Hello everyone :hello:
Don't pop over here much anymore.

Right, i successfully applied for an Egg card in November, but only got 2k limit. Not quite enough for my masterplan. I reduced the credit limit on my LTSB card by 5k and i had a Bank of Scotland credit card that i hadn't used for about 7 months so closed that in December (4.7k).

At the end of last month i applied for a new Bank of Scotland card and now have a rejection letter. I called up to see if they would tell me if there was anything wrong, but i need to check experian

I've already done the free experian one so will try the free Equifax report

When i send the appeal letter, should i send a copy of the equifax report?

Also my wage is slightly 'strange' as i quoted one value (which i asked the management and our pension people about). I don't mind sending in copies of my wage slips but i did a salary sacrifice for the pension - this means that the company pay the tax for everyone before it goes to the individual making a tax saving (something like that). I asked which wage should be quoted when making credit applications and was told to use the original - this is what wage increases would be calculated on too. So although the 'new' salary is less than the original the actual take home pay is more. I can explain that to them in the letter if you think i should put in the wage slips.

I was informed by 3 different members of staff when i was closing my account that there was no waiting period before your could reapply. So i don't think that this would be the problem - couldn't get any clues out of the girl i spoke to at card services as to why i may have failed this time.

Should i mention that they were happy for me to have a 4.7k credit limit jsut 2 months ago, or would this possibly count against me?

Any other tips or advice would be most welcome.
George

Please let me in on the "masterplan":D

GeorgeUK · 9 February 2010 at 4:35PM

Reduce debt to zero while paying as little interest as possible

GeorgeUK · 13 February 2010 at 10:05PM

Going to send off the letter in the next few days but would appreciate a critical eye over it. I'm going to remove it from here before i send it off too - there's a few things that would make it easy to identify me if it was searched (like they have time to do that). Thanks for any input.

Dear Sir/Madam, further to your recent letter dated xxth January 2010, I wish to appeal your decision to decline my application for a Bank of Scotland Plus Credit Card and ask the matter be referred to a senior underwriter. Below are some facts I would like you to consider with regard to my application:

On viewing my Equifax Credit Report, it states that I am financially linked with another person. As both my father and I are called George, some banks try to join our financial products, but Mrs xxxxxxx (my mother) and I are not financially associated.

Name 1:xxxxxxx
Source : xxxxxx Homeloans Ltd

Further to this I would point out that in approximately the last 2 months, I have closed an old Bank of Scotland account that had not been used for at least 7 months (credit limit £4,700) and also reduced the credit limit on my LTSB credit card by £5,000. I believe these details may not have been updated on my credit report at the time my application was considered.

As a previously satisfied customer of Bank of Scotland, I was disappointed at the decision and had hoped to continue using the excellent services I had experienced. I had confirmed with various members of staff prior to closing the card that there was no waiting period required should I wish to reapply in the future. It was not until after Christmas, when it was mentioned that I may receive a large pay rise at work, that I decided to overhaul my finances and further reduce both my credit limits and liability. This is the reason I applied for the credit card; in an attempt to consolidate some of the credit on my other cards. Having had a credit limit of £4,700 a few months previously and an excellent payment record, I was dismayed to not only be rejected, but also find that I could not be informed of the reason for the decision.

While I understand that you cannot divulge the structure behind the calculation of your credit scoring, I would appreciate it if I could be informed of any reason for the refusal that I may be able to address for any future application.

If you require any documentation such as bank statements or a copy of my credit report, I should be happy to provide these to assist in your decision. If clarification on any of the above is needed, please contact me on my direct dial number at work: 0123 456 789.

I look forward to your early response, after reconsidering my application based on the above.

CannyJock · 14 February 2010 at 10:50AM

Looks good to me

GeorgeUK · 5 March 2010 at 12:06PM

Phooey - rejection upheld.

Oh well, at least i've just received a 0% for 9 months offer from LTSB. That's the longest one they've ever given me - always 6 months before.

Should have full CC debt down to about 2.5k by the time it ends so i think i'll close the RBS and Virgin cards then reapply later. I don't think it's worth keeping the virgin card open, do you?

izools · 5 March 2010 at 12:34PM

Virgin might be worth keeping open as they do existing customer offers from time to time - RBS don't (or if they do it's much less frequent).

Pity about BoS; how are you getting on with the incorrect links on Equifax?

Good that LTSB offered you a repeat offer, seems like you're relatively well set for balance transfer offers until the end of the year! And you'll have a nice clean stretch of no searches or new accounts by then so stand a much better chance of acceptance when you make your next 0% hop. Awesomes

Rejected but appealing - advice and comments welcome

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