999 credit score and keep getting rejected

jimmybt

Hi there,
I'm 3 years self employed, run my own business, have a Lloyds air miles credit card, owing £300 approx. Also a barclaycard owing £800 (0% balance transfer which ends in April). Each card has approx £4000 limit.
Tried switching to new Santander account to get the 0% credit card, got rejected. Got rejected once or twice end of last year too. Checked my credit rating with experian and its 999.
Is there any way of finding out why I keep getting turned down when my rating is so good?
Cheers
James

cifpower

The 999 rating means nothing as it doesn't take into other factors such as income. Have you asked Santander why they turned you down? Have you tried appealing the decision? Each lender has different criteria so someone like Virgin may accept you.

LoopyPrune

Had same problem with Santander. Glowing credit history, many different cards from many different companys, came to apply for an Abbey National card and booooom rejected. Day after accepted for a £4.5k limit Sainsburys card instead with RBS.

Strange thing is the month previous I was accepted for a £100k mortgage with A&L.

At the end of the day they dont need to give any reason why and you just have to accept that it aint personal.

jimmybt

Thanks for the replies. I'll try contacting Santander for reasons. Its the 3rd rejection in a row. I hope all these applications are not having a negative effect.

MPH80

Perhaps they don't like self employed people? It's hard to prove income, there are tendencies to use the credit card to fund the business (not saying you will) and we are in a recession so if the business collapses - the credit card generally won't get paid either.

If you appeal you should provide evidence of income over the last 6 months to help them make their decision.

izools

It is probably more to do with income to credit limit ratio.

You have £8,000 credit limit across two cards, when applying for another some card providers calculate whether you can afford further credit based on the assumption your existing accounts are maxed out (as it is a possibility for the future).

Santander have peculiar scoring anyway, some people who have had limits of several grand offered consistently for years hence have been given sub £500 limits by them.

[Deleted User]

Nobody's mentioned yet that a 999 credit score isn't a good thing, necessarily. It's a code number, indicating they don't have information to give you a real score. For all you know, you could be a 200, or a 900.

JohalaReewi

billbennett wrote: »

..give you a real score....

No such thing. All the credit scores given out by credit reference agencies are made up.