Refused First Direct based on Credit Check?

zudecke

Hi,

Can't Believe I have just been refused an account with FD after having been accepted by Halifax, based on an Experian C check.

Takes the piddle!

According to Check My File, my credit rating with Experian is the best of the 3 lol!



Can anyone tell me why this is happening to me? Are FD unusually strict in this case, or is this common?

Cheers,

Z

JohalaReewi

FD are under no obligation to give you an account if they don't want to. Might not be anything to do with your actual credit rating. You just aren't the type of customer they want at the moment.

talulahbeige_2

You applied for a HX current account and a FD current account around the same time?

Each credit search is recorded and therefore FD will have known that you very recenlt applied for a HX current account and therefore have access to an overdraft of £1000. They might see that as a bad credit risk as they also offer an overdraft and you could be trying to get as much "free" money as possible.
They might also be wondering why you need to open 2 current accounts in a short space of time! it might have flagged up some sort of fraud warning to them.

zudecke

shouldn't they have specified a reason other than "poor credit history" with references and an application to Experian if that were the case?

talulahbeige_2

If it was fraud (and i'm not suggesting anything here!) why would they flag that up to you? If yuo were a fraudster you would then know that you had been caught out and look at other means of committing fraud.

"Poor credit history" covers too many credit applications in a short space of time

ste_coxy

not that it matters as each individual financial institution has their own scoring systems but that picture you put up says 2 stars out out of 5 - "you may experience difficulty getting reasonable amounts of credit" - am i missing something?

HappyMJ

Don't worry about FD I've tried every year for 5 years to get one and every time they say no. I have accounts with Halifax/Santander/RBS/Natwest and only FD has said NO!! But...they still send the mailings every month encouraging me to apply. It's very annoying.

ste_coxy

I have hard they are a very hard bank to get an account with. They have strict criteria.

zudecke

ste_coxy wrote: »

not that it matters as each individual financial institution has their own scoring systems but that picture you put up says 2 stars out out of 5 - "you may experience difficulty getting reasonable amounts of credit" - am i missing something?

yeah you are it seems - im not asking for credit. i didn't even opt for an OD.

premierfella

zudecke wrote: »

yeah you are it seems - im not asking for credit. i didn't even opt for an OD.

That is a strange retort, as surely you do not believe that, by not asking for an overdraft, First Direct would then look at the application and go "no need to credit check this one - they can't possibly owe us money at any point on this current account".

zudecke

but the point i was making is - I'm not applying for credit, so why is the criteria so strict??