Turned Down By Amazon!

fallen121

I'm very shocked. For the first time in my life I've had a credit card refused. My financial status is good, a full time job with excellent salary, car loan just paid off, 3 other credit cards (Egg, Tesco and Halifax One), mortgage a bit on the high side but let's face it whose isn't, no CCJs, no credit cards over the limit, no overdraft, savings in the Bank (which they didn't ask about), decent share portfolio and own two properties, although the mortgage is only about £2,000 on one of them.

The only thing I can think of is that my husband has just bought a computer and camera, both on interest free credit.

Are Amazon's lending criteria particualrly harsh because they've yet to make a profit? I notice the card is serviced by HBOS (who happen to be my employers).

Do you think I've been turned down because of my husband's purchases, because of my employment, because of my existing cards or a combination of all three? I'm now wondering how long I should wait before applying again. Camera will be paid off in October, computer in December.

PS Hubby is self employed with 3 years accounts. I decared his income (which we can prove) but they didn't ask about his employment, just what the income was.

YorkshireBoy

I can see 2 possible reasons...

1. HBoS aren't happy extending you further credit (you already have one credit card with them), or

2. You simply have too much available/used credit showing on your credit report, when compared to your salary.

Why not ask Amazon/HBoS why you have been declined?


PS: I wouldn't have thought your husband's camera has anything to do with it, so you can't blame him - nice try though!

magentadreamer

Isn't the Tesco card run by HBOS? It might well be that HBOS doesn't like to give out more than 2 cards at once.

edit: my mistake I thought Tesco was hbos it's RBS

fallen121

Do you think it would help if I shut the Halifax One? I only kept it for the 0% balance transfer, managed to get it last year before the BT fee came in. Now it's 71p in credit. Couldn't figure out how to bring it down to zero, so it's just stayed open.

magentadreamer

It might help, but I'm suuprised that you've been turned down,given your circumstances. Have you taken a look at your CRA report -you can get a free 30 day trial with Experian -that might shed some light on it and if not I'd ask HBOS why you've been turned down. I don't think it's just as simple as only being allowed one HBOS cards - I've got two -A halifax card plus a Sainsburys one

Dave_the_Ginger_Cat

fallen121 wrote:

Do you think it would help if I shut the Halifax One? I only kept it for the 0% balance transfer, managed to get it last year before the BT fee came in. Now it's 71p in credit. Couldn't figure out how to bring it down to zero, so it's just stayed open.

Quickest way if you still have the plastic - buy a small item, get the statement, and then pay off the amount on the statement. If you have not, just ring them - they can probably send you the balance back!

Dave_the_Ginger_Cat

magentadreamer wrote:

... and if not I'd ask HBOS why you've been turned down. I don't think it's just as simple as only being allowed one HBOS cards - I've got two -A halifax card plus a Sainsburys one

According to the T&C's of my Sainsburys card it is operated by HBOS, not owned by them. As such, the two companies cannot look at each others banking records apart from through the CRA reports.

M_Thomson

Dave_the_Ginger_Cat wrote:

According to the T&C's of my Sainsburys card it is operated by HBOS, not owned by them. As such, the two companies cannot look at each others banking records apart from through the CRA reports.

Nope, It is underwritten and administered by HBOS so they will take any card issued by them into account when looking at applications for more credit.

M_Thomson

fallen121 wrote:

I'm very shocked. For the first time in my life I've had a credit card refused. My financial status is good, a full time job with excellent salary, car loan just paid off, 3 other credit cards (Egg, Tesco and Halifax One), mortgage a bit on the high side but let's face it whose isn't, no CCJs, no credit cards over the limit, no overdraft, savings in the Bank (which they didn't ask about), decent share portfolio and own two properties, although the mortgage is only about £2,000 on one of them.

The only thing I can think of is that my husband has just bought a computer and camera, both on interest free credit.

Are Amazon's lending criteria particualrly harsh because they've yet to make a profit? I notice the card is serviced by HBOS (who happen to be my employers).

Do you think I've been turned down because of my husband's purchases, because of my employment, because of my existing cards or a combination of all three? I'm now wondering how long I should wait before applying again. Camera will be paid off in October, computer in December.

PS Hubby is self employed with 3 years accounts. I decared his income (which we can prove) but they didn't ask about his employment, just what the income was.

The card carries Amazons name, but is underwritten and managed all by HBOS. So it is nothing to do with Amazon not making much of a profit. If you work for a bank you should know that you will not always get every card you apply for even if you have a perfect history. Each answer you give on an application gives you points for which you get a total score. This along with wether you are on the electoral role and what other credit you have in relation to your income decides wether you qualify for the card. The credit score threshold can change often depending on what sort of customer a card company is looking for.
They are not saying you are a bad customer, they are just saying that you don't relect their criteria at this time.

Dave_the_Ginger_Cat

M_Thomson wrote:

Nope, It is underwritten and administered by HBOS so they will take any card issued by them into account when looking at applications for more credit.

Taken directly from their website: Sainsbury's Bank plc is a joint venture with 45% of the share capital owned by the Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland, a subsidiary of HBOS plc. Sainsbury's Bank plc, St Andrew's Life Assurance plc and St Andrew's Insurance plc are connected companies as the ultimate parent company of St Andrew's Life Assurance plc and St Andrew's Insurance plc also has shares in Sainsbury's Bank plc..
As they operate under a separate banking licence, they are not allowed to view HBOS data when underwriting. If you'd like to continue to discuss this offline, PM me.
DTGC

fallen121

M_Thomson wrote:

So it is nothing to do with Amazon not making much of a profit. If you work for a bank you should know......

HBoS manage the card, and to this end would have the right to dictate to some extent who was accepted by Amazon and who was not. This doesn't mean that HBoS could see Amazon customer data or vice versa, it could simply mean that when signing the affinity agreement, HBoS could specify the boundaries for customer acceptance by Amazon (which could be harsher than their lending criteria for their own Halifax and/or Bank of Scotland cards if they so wished). To this end, whether or not Amazon had made a profit could factor into the equation, because HBoS might want to limit their exposure to certain types of customer, because Amazon's ability to 'make good' on bad debts might be adversely affected by bad profitability and/or lack of cashflow.

HBoS employs many thousands of people, and not all of them are directly connected to the Retail Banking arm of the business. Many are Accountants, Solicitors, IT Analysts, HR, Security, Hospitality, Project Management, Disaster Recovery and so on. So it is not always the case that someone working for a Bank necessarily understands in minute detail how lending criteria operate. Not everyone who works for NASA knows how to fly the Shuttle! Sadly, members of the public see the staff behind the counter and assume that the HBOS workforce consists entirely of such people and their Managers.