Credit Card Applications being refused

dag_2 · 18 December 2004 at 9:17PM

Check with your local council that you are on the electoral roll

Actually that's a very good point.

Your record on the electoral register might not be the same as Royal Mail's postcode database. This is particularly true if you live in a house that's been converted into flats or bedsits - the electoral register will probably show all the flats as separate addresses, but Royal Mail probably won't.

Your address could be in different formats - for example 1C without a comma, or 1, C with a comma, or Flat C Block 1, or 1 Flat C - your local postie is probably able to figure it out when he wanders around your street, but Experian and Equifax don't have the local knowledge - so they don't know that "1C" and "1, C" are the same place.

So when you write off for your credit reference, or apply for credit, you should give your address exactly as it appeared on the electoral registration form you filled in.

It will help if Royal Mail's record also matches. If your address is shown differently on Royal Mail's postcode finder, then try to get Royal Mail to change it.

However ....

You can get a bad record by living in the same house as someone with debt problems

It's not necessarily just the same house - it can also be the same street. Sometimes lenders use government deprivation statistics for your area to assess your creditworthiness. This means that you can get a bad record by living in the same area as lots of benefit recipients, council tenants, hospital inpatients, or people who didn't go to university after leaving school.

westernpromise · 19 December 2004 at 2:36AM

This means that you can get a bad record by living in the same area as lots of benefit recipients, council tenants, hospital inpatients, or people who didn't go to university after leaving school.

And quite right too ;D