Barclaycard have damaged my credit rating are they liable?

leachyd

Paul_Herring wrote: »

Edit: Yet another thread about people with a "good" Experian Credit score wondering why they were refused by Halifax: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1983999 - how can so many people be confused by this if Experian are being 'open' or 'accurate' about what the Score they provide actually is?

Perhaps people are using these blindly, not taking information from any other sources, and making sure that they understand the entire process before applying for credit.

CookieMonster1

Barclays i hate them they reduced my limit on my barclaycard which i then cancelled and just as i thought i got away from, i found out they took over goldfish and then they reduced that one too which i also cancelled. Never had a problem with any other cc company only them.

Moggles_2

leachyd wrote: »

Perhaps people are using these blindly, not taking information from any other sources and making sure that they understand the entire process before applying for credit.

Without question, some seize on the credit score and don't make sufficient time to look at their credit reports properly in conjunction with the guidance notes which the CRAs enclose. (The same explanatory notes are available online)

All too often, worrying about credit scores distracts people from tackling the things that really matter.

Moggles_2

philip99 wrote: »

Barclaycard slashed my credit limits without warning me to just 5% above the card balances. This now means that on my credit report I am essentially 'maxed out' at 95% of my usable credit. If they had given me warning I could have cleared the card etc or brought it down to the 30% optimum for credit agencies. I am fuming with Barclaycard, been with them 16 years and now despise them.

Everyone should have at least one back-up card, IMO. No credit card is 100% reliable and sadly there's the ever-present possibility of fraud, which means your card could be blocked temporarily through no fault of your own or the provider.

What's more, if your lender varies your Ts & Cs or, as in your case, cuts your limit without warning, you have an alternative to hand. From a credit rating point of view, it makes sense too

cleopatra4485

I am really confused with this thread

I have a really bad credit score (defaults, ignoring some debts etc) but Good long term Job, good salary, on electrical role etc etc.

I am always declined credit. So surely companies must look at this score?

izools

cleopatra4485 wrote: »

I am really confused with this thread

I have a really bad credit score (defaults, ignoring some debts etc) but Good long term Job, good salary, on electrical role etc etc.

I am always declined credit. So surely companies must look at this score?

They don't look at any one piece of information.

They will NOT use the Experian score, but calculate their own score, based on the information Experian hold about you (payment history, search history, balances, available credit, how long accounts have been open, defaults), also public information (Electoral register information, court judgement information). They will also look at other information you provide, like income, marital status, occupation, time in job, etc.

All of this information is put into their automagical score sheet worker outer and then depending on what type of customer that creditor wants, their calculator will generate a score based on how closely your information matches their "Ideal customer".

If you are slightly off, they may offer you a low limit / high APR, of you're way off, they may decline you.

You may be declined because your credit history / application information suggests you won't meet payments, or you may be declined not because you pose a risk, but because you are simply not the type of customer that creditor / bank is looking for.

HSBC for example, declined my mother for even a current account even though she is a home owner, living where she is for 21 years, she has an experian score of 900, and poses no risk to any bank or credit card company. Perhaps they didn't want her as a customer because the data she provided ties in with the data troublesome customers that make a lot of complaints provided on their application form? It's a possibility, and some creditors look at other statistics like this.

RBS on the other hand, approved her for two credit cards, an overdraft, a mortgage, and a loan. She has by no means accepted all of these offers of credit (especially glad not the mortgage, as the base rate plummeted six weeks later!), but it's interesting to see that one bank offer her the world when another, nothing atall.

No one piece of information will affect your ability to obtain credit, but the overall picture a creditor sees.

The reason the Experian and Equifax scores shouldn't be trusted, is because:

1. This is just the CRA's interpretation of your eligibility to credit. Other creditors will put a different weighting on different pieces of information.

2. The CRA's don't know your income, expenditure, marital status, and employment status when calculating the score. Creditors do.

Creditors will never reveal to you what pieces of information they consider more important or less important, if they did then customers would be able to manipulate the application forms. Creditors often pay six or seven figures for their own score sheet to be developed, based on their needs.

Some creditors consider lots of available credit to be a bigger problem than say for example the odd missed payment, whereas other creditors will look very badly upon missed payments but not mind a customer that has lots of unused available credit, for example. The list is endless.

Paul_Herring

RBS on the other hand, approved her for two credit cards, an overdraft, a mortgage, and a loan. She has by no means accepted all of these offers of credit, but it's interesting to see that one bank offer her the world when another, nothing atall.

Those sound more like "pre-approval" where they spam offers to people who they might consider giving credit to.

If she were to apply, they'd credit score her 'properly' and could still turn her down.

izools

Paul_Herring wrote: »

Those sound more like "pre-approval" where they spam offers to people who they might consider giving credit to.

If she were to apply, they'd credit score her 'properly' and could still turn her down.

She has two credit cards and an overdraft with them now, has done for over a year.

£500 Overdraft (They wanted to give her £1,000 but she didn't take it), Cheque guaruntee, £3,000 Mastercard + £2,200 mastercard, when HSBC offered her....... A cashcard!!!

She applied for a remortgage, and was approved but she pulled out at the last minute as the base rate was changing and they wanted to fix at 4.9% APR Also she found out later in the underwriting process they only mortgage upto 75th birthday and she's looking for one upto her 85th now. Might help her apply to Santander when the time is right

We know they'd give her a loan, as she applied for one to get the uPVC re-done, but cancelled the application when I said it would be better to wait until she can remortgage and borrow the cost against the equity at the time.

So not just spam! She's never actually been sent offers, just found that they approve her for anything she asks for! She's not taken a loan or mortgage, and won't until the time is right. No point taking out a facility just because you can

exel1966

Deleted_User wrote: »

Fact: You are more likely to get credit with a score of 999 than a score of 111 (excluding Dodgy Dave's back-alley loan shark)

So, what's the harm in giving customers one number that gives them a quick snapshot of their report, holistically?

All card companies use customer profiling at times to entice a certain type of customer. Because you have a higher CRA number will not mean you're more likely to get credit if you don't fit that profile so NO, it's not fact.

The harm is quite obvious judging by the number of people who post here saying;-

'I got declined when my credit 'score' is 999' OR
' I got accepted for a card with a credit 'score' of 111' OR
' Call credit said I was likely to get rejected when i applied for a Barclaycard, but i did and got accepted'

It lulls people into a VERY FALSE sense of security, by making them believe something which quite clearly isn't !

The ONLY organisation who should be able to provide a 'score' is the financial company you're applying to, but that's very unlikely to ever happen.

chattychappy

I got declined when my credit score is 999

I feel this "credit score" topic has been done to death - but the OP does touch on an interesting topic.