refused a phone contract

McKneff

Up till about 18 months ago my duaghter and b/f got into major difficulties
debt wise, and had to sell their house as they owed banks and c/cards.
This went on for some while with creditors chasing them almost to the harrasment stage. They sold their house and paid off all the debts and mortgage. She went for a contract phone today, like i say 18 months debt free later, a job she has a good income from for the last 7 years and they declined her (contract phone she wanted was £15 per month) No explanation, nothing. How long is it before she can get credit again. I must admit to knowing nothing about credit reports, etc. so i am completely in the dark. How does she build up credit worthiness if she cant get credit.
In plain english only please, i really am niave in these matters.
Thanks in advance.

before_hollywood

there is no time frame, and the credit scoring system varies a lot.
for example if you go into an independent store that has all networks, one network could decline you, another could accept.
one network could decline through their own store/website but through another chain you could be accepted, its because the billing systems are different. usually its a case of they say no to any contract with them rather than a contract at x amount per month.

there are also three stages
1. decline- a straight no, with no explanation.
2. conditional acceptance- yes but with conditions like a spending limit or deposit.
3. unconditional acceptance- a straight yes.

custardy

its worth querying the network provider
i had this when i had been working abroad and moved back
i had to give orange a £150 deposit for 6 months or a year.
cant remember for sure

Deep_In_Debt

Hi
As far as I'm aware, it can take 6 years for bad debt to drop off the files, even if it has been paid.

She could write to her past creditors and ask them to mark her files as "satisfied". Has she checked her credit files recently? I think for about £2.00 she can apply for her credit files on line and do a bit of a "clean up".

poorandindenial

Hi Annie

There are loads of things that can affect the credit 'rating' that she has. The first thing that she needs to check is whether she has a default on her credit reference file. If she has she should have known about it as they should have notified her in writing (but sometimes things don't go as they should)

Stage one is for her to see what is on her credit files. I think the easiest way to do this is to write to the three credit reference agencies with a £2 cheque for each agency and they will send her paper copies (link). She can do a free rial with one of the agencies (Experian and may also be able to get cashback for doing this if she goes through Quidco.co.uk)

IF the file looks clean ish then the problem is that she has no positive credit history and to bolster this she can get a crappy interest rate credit card and use it and pay it in full each month so that she can demonstrate credit worthiness.

Martin has an article about improving credit ratings and a tool where you can predict what your probable 'score' is (although this is only indicative as all banks use their own scoring systems) - link

Sorry it is all a bit waffly but there aren't many hard and fasts in this. The best thing is for her to check her files so that she can see what they can see and go from there.

Oh and an automatic no for lots of things is not being on the electoral register, do you know if she is or not??? If not then most companies won't give credit as they use it to verify ID.

Merlinexcalibur

Hello. Just saw your troubles with getting a new mobile phone contract. Don't know whether this will help. Some providers are more stringent with their credit checks, even the slightest thing will reject it. But, you may get lucky with one of the others.

I tried for a new contract phone recently, had the same trouble. But got one with another network. Different phone to the deal I wanted but least the phone I previously wanted before Christmas. It's £15 a month, fractionally less with the VAT drop. But it was the cheapest one I could find from Carphone Warehouse.

They may be worth contacting if you are still wanting a contract phone or your daughter is?