Vodafone declined me via mobiles.co.uk

tomrabbit

After spending a few days trawling the internet for the best deal, I chose a £15 pay monthly contract with Vodafone via mobiles.co.uk, got a PAC from my current phone supplier, and expected a shiny new phone in the post tomorrow. But my application has been declined by Vodafone.
I am stumped. I have checked my credit report on Experian, and there are absolutely no issues. Couldn't check Equifax as their site is playing up. I have a mortgage and credit cards, and have never defaulted on payments. I'm in employment, been at my current address over 3 years, and I've never been refused credit before, so it came as a complete shock. I guess I could get my husband to take out the contract, but is there anything I can do to get it myself? What could have caused the refusal?

d123

tomrabbit wrote: »

What could have caused the refusal?

if everything is as you said (and you are on the Electoral Register), most likely thing would be down to a mistake made by the retailer while credit checking you.

mobilejunkie

Have a word with Vodafone. Dealers sometimes use this little reason because they don;t want to honour a deal. Vodafone should at least know whether it was declined (or even applied for) though won't tell you why it was declined. However, they may be keen to sell you a contract direct. If it was an error on their part they may also tell you to reapply, though normally you have to wait three months with this network.

tomrabbit

Just spoke to Equifax - it seems the problem may lie with my address. I live out in the stix, with no road name or house number, and my address is held differently depending on which electronic system retrieves it. The council uses a slightly different name for our house on the electoral register, the post office uses a different town name to what people actually put on their addresses. It's all very confusing, but depending on which system the credit provider used to retrieve the address, there could be 3 different addresses. Am trying to sort this out with Equifax now.

tomrabbit

Mobilejunkie, your idea of phoning Vodafone was a good one. They couldn't have been more helpful. When I explained the situation, and that I thought it could be an issue with my address, they located the order, spoke to their credit department, and within minutes, the contract had been approved. Mobiles.co.uk were very confused when I passed this information on to them, and asked me to go back to Vodafone to find out what they should do next(!). Again, Vodafone were great, explained that Mobiles.co.uk should know that they need to refer such orders to the Vodafone Dealer support line, which I relayed back to Mobiles.co.uk
So ... I don't actually have the shiny new phone in my hand yet, but it is apparently in transit, and the contract has been confirmed in writing, and if the 13 months free line rental which attracted me to this deal comes off ok, it will have been worth it, despite all the hassle.
Also, a big thumbs up for Equifax for helping me sort out the problem. Without an accurate address, your credit history can disappear. Now I am going to work on sorting out the various versions of our address with Equifax and Experian, to make sure I don't have this problem again, and I will also have to speak to the council about the address on the electoral roll. I think I will be getting value for money out of my free 30 day trials!

Vodafone

Hi tomrabbit,

I just wanted to pop my head in on this thread and say that I am really pleased we were able to help you out with this so quickly. I imagine the initial result would have been quite a shock, but you sound much happier now and I hope your new phone is excellent!

If you ever need any help or assistance in the future please feel free to give us a shout on these boards and we will be back in touch as soon as possible. (Sorry that we missed you this time.)

Have a fab weekend,

Espi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK