Card Tarting and Credit Checking Problems

fossie1

Hi,

I'm new to the forum thing but I was wondering if anyone could help me out. I'm 24 and have been doing the card tarting thing, I got my first 'tart' card easily and when it came to applying for a new card I got rejected.

Not thinking I applied for others and have since come to realise I probably did not do myself any favours doing this, however, I cannot fathom how I got rejected in the first place. I have store cards with 0 balance on them and when there is a balance they are always paid immediately. I'm a home owner of 5 years, have a loan which is more than half paid off and a mobile phone contract and have never missed a payment for any of these. I have used Experian to check my record and everything looks fine. Overall I think I am a good risk?!

The only reasons I can think of are that I have recently been married and changed my name and I wonder if this is the reason? My husband has not had the best with credit in the past but is now offered and accepted for anything he applies for so it cannot be through association with him. Maybe the name change confused everyone? Another thing is that I moved banks in March due to a switching incentive but was offered a good account with £900 overdraft and have not had any problems staying in my limit and this is a joint account with hubby and clearly it hasn't effected his credit score. The last reason I can think of is that my job is fixed term (but keeps being renewed and has been for the past 18 month) but I don't know how the credit companies would know this as there is not a box to declare this type of employment status.

Although the credit card that I originally wanted to transfer the balance from is now luckily transferred onto my hubby's 0% card, I am still worried as we wish to move house (we have a deposit saved and should be able to clear these debts shortly once a bond of mine clears) and I'm concerned we may get rejected for a mortgage cos of me... Could any money experts please advise as to why my original application was rejected and how I can sort out the mess I've created reapplying so that I can get my mortgage sorted? Thanks

Rafter

fossie,

Think you have probably answered your own question in there somewhere. The banks have 'scorecards' to decide whether or not to lend and these will include time at address, time with bank, etc etc. You must have failed on one of these.

Given your experian record looks fine, unless your existing debt and store card limits are high versus your income, I'd give the company you tried a call and ask whether your application can be 'manually underwritten' as you think there must be a mistake.

Good luck

R.

fossie1

Thanks for your reply, I wasn't sure if I could contact the company without upsetting my score further (e.g. if they re-run the check to see what went wrong) but will give that a try!