Can prev house owners affect my chances???

kiwichick

Hi All,

A quick one to ask, we applied for a 0% cc a few days ago and today have had a letter stating "Unfortunately we are unable to issue you with a cc at present. We asked credit reference agencies about you and the people you have a financial link with. The information they provided was used in our decision making. We recommend that you get a copy of this information........blah blah blah" So anyway, we applied in DH's name as I dont work therefore have no income etc etc. I assume that this means the info they refer to is about me. Now, I have never had a bad debt, a couple of late payments on an adams card once which were paid in full when I realised I'd forgotten them. I've had cc's in the past and a loan, mortgage etc, again all paid off in full. We've never been turned down before. Does anyone think it might be something to do with the house move. Either the big mortgage or possibly previous owners here????? The couple before us were young and ran into money trouble, could there be some sort of black mark against the address????????????????????

Any help appreciated,
Allison.

gazza975526570

No. Only people whm you have a financial association with will affect your own credit rating - ie family etc.

However it could be the general location affecting it rather than the actual address

kiwichick

Thx, that makes sense as we have just bought a council house from the prev owner, one of the few privately owned in what is an area with lots of council houses. Could that be why???

regularsaver1

you've just moved - are you on the electoral roll?

there is a reason why banks ask you how long you have lived in your property - you havent been there long

gazza975526570

kiwichick wrote:

Thx, that makes sense as we have just bought a council house from the prev owner, one of the few privately owned in what is an area with lots of council houses. Could that be why???

Possibly - some companies will cluster areas together to make lending decisions.

The last poster makes a valid point too - if youve only just moved in (and perhaps you werent at your last place long) could influence it too.

kiwichick

we've only been here 9 weeks but we are on the electoral role, our last house we owned for 5 years 7 months, is that long enough? I am really at a loss with it all. They do have an address through which we can appeal, any ideas what I ought to say?

Also, forgot to mention that we currently have no loans other than the mortgage, no finance on anything and only one other credit card that we have over £5k avalible on.

Careful_ly

Just a thought but have you checked if the information held by the credit reference agencies, such as Experian, has actually been updated with your new electoral role information. Sometimes information can take quite a long time to filter through.

kiwichick

I have decided that we will appeal as we would like to transfer a balance of £2500 onto a 0% card and this one has the longest life and over the 18 months it will save us paying £1188 in interest. I will pay the £4 to get both our bits of info from Experian. Are they the best to go through??

samat2001

Just for your information - previous owners could possibly affect your chances but usually only if they were in serious trouble (not missing the odd payment) - it is also r ight that some companies will not necessarily mark you down, but would need to do further checks depending on where you live. I work for a credit card company and there is something called CIFAS (Credit Industry Fraud Avoidence System) and if the previous owner has been flagged down for fraud, the property is also flagged down - if this is the case with your property (which will be very unlikely) any 'instant' decisions will be a refferal (ie do more checks) but when they find out it isn't you it will be disregarded.

kiwichick

Well, after some asking around of neighbours it turns out that the people who owned the house before us got it cheap because it was a reposession. I assume this means the bank forclosed on the house, apparently it had been used as collateral on a loan from the bank to fund a failing (now bunkrupt) business.

Do you think if I wrote to the cc company and explained they would reconsider. Is there any way of proving the situation to them??

The_Boss

If you have been there for 9 weeks, thats not really a long time and would affect your credit score with them.

Also, as said above, though you have applied to be on the Electoral Roll there, it may not have been updated by the credit reference agencies.