Alliance and Leicester - recommend a friend? (Merged)

yebaws

Actually, I hope you're wrong because the last thing I want to have is an incorrect entry on my credit history. I have appealed and will let you know the result. How did you know it was the underwriters descision?

yebaws

Just another point... A short time ago (I haven't made any applications since) I used one of Martin's techniques to get a free look at my Experian credit report. Everything there was correct and in good order. I'm not sure if A&L use Experian or Equifax. (Anybody know?) but they used Experian when I applied for their credit card (although this is an MNBA card, so they may use a different agency). Incidentally, I used the A&L card for a super balance transfer and paid off the entire debt without any interest. This is what make me suspicious of their motives for refusal

Revex

Mostly they use experian but as I found out recently due to my experience they use Equifax and I think even callcredit too.

skintchick

They are doing this deliberately IMHO - see my other thread but they opened my acocunt in September, then stopped working on transferring ym dds etc sometime in October - I called yesterday but am now over the 8 weeks, therefore they don;t have to pay the recommend a friend payment.

I'm glad I didn;t manage to swap to them. It's outrageous.

Anyone else in this situation, would you PM me? I think it's worth giving them some bad publicity en masse.

M_Thomson

The A&L credit card is underwritten by MBNA, so when you opened a current account with them A&L would have used their own in house scoring system. It may not be anything to do with your credit history, it may just be that you don't fit the profile of the type of customer that they are looking for at the moment.

rudedog_2

Just been turned down too.... also been a bit of a player myself... Earn a good wage, own my own house, never missed a credit payment, on the electoral roll but am prone to the odd stooze....

Quite annoyed by the way I was turned down...

The subject of the email was "good news, you've been accepted" but it wasn't for the premier direct current account, it was for a standard current account with visa electron....

I'll be writting to them....

MarkyMarkD

yebaws wrote:

Actually, I hope you're wrong because the last thing I want to have is an incorrect entry on my credit history. I have appealed and will let you know the result. How did you know it was the underwriters descision?

Because most account applications (whether current account or credit card) are rejected after an underwriter's decision, whether automated or manual. The only other sort of rejection I can conceive of is because you won't be profitable enough for them (as another post suggests) but I find that unlikely to be honest with current account providers.

yebaws

The only other sort of rejection I can conceive of is because you won't be profitable enough for them (as another post suggests)

Yes, that was my original point.

but I find that unlikely to be honest with current account providers.

They claimed that it was an underwriters descision, but on what basis? I think that you have to view the A&L current account slightly differently from other current accounts. It's a loss leader, so they're unlikely to want to open accounts for people if they can't see a way to getting their money back and some...They're not stupid, nor am I.

M_Thomson

yebaws wrote:

I think that you have to view the A&L current account slightly differently from other current accounts. It's a loss leader.

So are most current accounts that pay in credit interest near to or above the base rate. What they really want to do is get customers who have the greatest cross sell potential. I am not saying that you are not one of those, I am just commenting on the way the banks look at things.

yebaws

M_Thomson wrote:

So are most current accounts that pay in credit interest near to or above the base rate.

Absolutely. Anything that even offers just free banking is a loss leader, but offering interest on credit, a free overdraft, and a £50 joinup reward is a BIG loss leader, so they're likely to be even more picky than most.