Declined by Tesco - NEED HELP!!

JasonW_2

Hiya folks,
Just when I thought things were starting to go well, tesco have gone and bit me on the !!!!!!!

Have over 3k on BOS credit card, 18.9% APR (I know I know!! God I feel so stupid)
Just under 3k on my Tesco credit card, think its 16% APR, but a lot of this has been recent purchases for new house.
Just bought a house 6mths ago, all going well, 2yr fixed rate mortgage with Halifax (got the deal before the last 3 BOE rate increases )


Anyway, in the house I need to install gas central heating as there is no heating in here at present, ripped out costly and ugly storage heaters before I moved in. With all the work that was going to be, I was going to put in a brand new kitchen at the time, not huge and the combi boiler was going to be going in there:

new kitchen - 700 (yes really I said it was small and thats with 50% off - MFI
new heating - 2k MAX and thats fully installed with condensing combi (again, yes really!)
The rest was going to clear off the tesco card, and move the BOS balance onto the tesco card (and then NOT use it!) as I could get 5.9% life of balance, not amazing but still very good and was trying to work with what I had. Tesco didnt know this though. I have built up over £2k savings but really wanted to keep this even though martins advice on this makes perfect sense to use it.


Before this though, applied to A+L for a loan and they declined but only went with them cos they were the cheapest. On the back of this freedom finance have called me every day at least 3 times for the last 10 days trying to get me to take out a loan with them. Have just today told them to F off! They were asking for it, trying to profit from my situation, well thats how they see it!

Called Tesco on Monday last week and they agreed a 7k loan in principle, so great I thought. Just had to send in my bank statements with the form they were going to send out. No form for a couple of days so called again, and got the new form (checked the date) but they had PPI on it, so called them to say I didnt want it, and that meant waiting on another form. Sent bank statements off to them Monday this week and called the last couple of days to check they had the docs at first and to see how the app was doing. Well today, they are now saying the have declined me but cant say why! The woman said I had 'understated my salary' but surely that is a good thing?? I get regular overtime but didnt include this in the app as its not strictly guaranteed. Anyway when I pushed her on this, she said she was just guessing as she was from the applications dept (!!!!!!? just guessing) and said it could be anything once they had done a full credit search. I have one default on my BOS visa but that was just over 5 years ago at my previous address, and some missed payments around the same time for almost everything, but this was forced redundancy twice. Lucky me eh?

Feel really let down by them to say the least and have just written a letter of appeal to them telling them how good I have been and what I planned to do with the extra part of the loan, etc and pointing out I have more than one product with them, and explaining anything negative they might have seen.

A few questions:

Does an appeal ever get the desired outcome?
Do you think in their 'full search' they have seen this search for freedom effing finance I never asked for!?
In my credit report, vodafone have said I missed a payment a year ago - I never and have filled in a dispute and even called vodafone who say they have no record of a missed payment. This is the only missed payment on me in the last 4 years and even then it is wrong, so do you think this would be enough for tesco to say no?
Any other ideas of where else to get a loan if tesco still say no without looking desperate and damaging my rating further, and freedom finance and co are obviously NOT an option.

I will also post this into debt free wannabe, as I have written more than I intended, but your valuable advice is very much appreciated. I will tidy this post later as I have probably made speallink mistakes

JW

nh

One missed payment will not affect your credit rating and would not have caused Tesco to turn you down. So I wouldn;t worry about the Vodafone thing.

BUT a default, even five years ago, is probably what the problem is. I think it takes six years for these things to clear.

I got turned down by Tesco home phone and tried to find out why but they refused to tell me why even after several irate phone calls.

So I assume Tesco loans will not tell you why you have been turned down. Apparently this is to protect their lending criteria from abuse (ie. if you know why they turn you down you may re-apply and lie about that specific thing)

Unfotunately, if you default, that will make it difficult for you to obtain low-interest credit for six years. It seems this is what is happening here.

Could you wait six months (or however long it takes?) for this to be removed from your credit file?

Have you applied for your credit file recently? Is this the only 'black mark' on it? If so, and you own your own home, are on the electoral roll, have a full-time job etc, then it may be the problem.

But then again it may not be. You been approved for a mortgage recently and they obviously didn't mind about the default.

But you have now been declined for two loans so it looks like it is more than just Tesco/A&L playing silly beggars.

I am sorry about your situation cos it is so frustrating when you can't get work done you wanted, but whatever you do, don't go to Freedom Finance, they will want you to remortgage at a massive rate!

JasonW_2

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, that makes sense about lenders not telling you why, but it also makes it very difficult to know where to start looking.

The missed payment for Vodafone is the only one in 4 years, neared 5 though. Like I said I missed a few payments at the time, but there is only the one default ever.

I got my report online yesterday with equifax, just for the sake of convenience, and have already disputed the vodafone thing. Even if it doesnt hold a lot of weight, its still incorrect.

As for the default it says:

Company Name / Insight Account Number Account Type Terms Start Balance Current Balance
Bank of Scotland / AD00000xxxxxxxxxx Credit Card 0 @ £ 0 (Monthly) £ 0 £ 0
Status Credit Limit Date Updated Start Date Date Last Delinquent Date Satisfied Default Date Default Balance
Defaulted £ 0 07/09/2000 30/05/1997 05/00 31/05/2000 £ 1,632
Payment History
Monthly Profile : D
0 payments 1 month in arrears; 0 payments 2 months in arrears; 0 payments 3 or more months in arrears.Default has been registered on this account



The forum doesnt format it too well, but it says detault date was 31/05/00 - so does that mean at the start of 2006 will this disappear, or from the 31st May 2006 on its 'birthday' ? Proper confusing all this stuff. Also yes, I am a home owner, full time employment 3yrs with same job, on the electoral roll etc.

I guess I could hold off for a while longer, but its freezing here so the heating would have came in handy! Also, I was so determined to get myself out of debt asap, Im scared to even throw some savings at the cards to get the balances down incase I used them up and still cant get a loan in 6 months time, and run a higher risk of missing payments again. Catch 22. I have worked out to the last penny that I can afford this and was so genuinely excited at the idea of clearing my feet, and doing these home improvemts as well as they would add value to the house as well. Read Martins book and I was truly inspired! Whens the next one coming out?

JW

nh

I imagine the default will disappear on its 'birthday' ie. May 2006.

I am not absolutely certain about the 6-year thing, by the way, that is just my understanding.

The default is almost certainly the problem. Some companies will simply always reject anyone with a default, or anyone with payments more than 3 months in arrears, or anyone with CCJs etc. It is automatic.

An appeal may do you good, it can't do any harm, but I wouldn't hold out too much hope. They weren't very forthcoming with me and that was only for home phone!

Maybe an option is your bank. You may have to pay slightly higher interest rates but as they know you they may be more willing to offer you something, especially as this default was a long time ago (I am sure this makes a difference).

JasonW_2

Thanks for the reply again, would of course welcome any one elses opinions or experience with loan appeals!
Might try the bank then, as I bank with the bank of scotland (who the default it for) and I still have their credit card, and got my mortgage from them. A good rate at the moment, but getting changed (well, hopefully) once the fixed rate ends. I just liked the tesco rate and will wait and see the result of the appeal first to see what they say. Apparently there is a letter on the way but I suspect that isnt going to tell me too much. I got the appeal address off their site and send a letter today to speed things up slightly.

JW

Spendless

You say you bought your house 6 months ago.

Are you on the electoroll list?

We had bother being refused credit when we moved house a few years ago. I later found out i wasn't on the electoroll list. I don't know if this was co-incidence or not - but it might be worth checking.

JasonW_2

Yes definitely on the electoral roll, but there is no date of birth against the current address. Cant believe I never noticed this, would it matter, or the fact that I am on the roll tied to my correct report, is that enough?

Just says
current
confirmed: yes
length of residence: 1 year

previous
confirmed: yes
length of residence: 20 years

but in the section below, it has 'dates on electoral roll' as '04-05' and the date of birth box is empty, but in my previous address its my correct date of birth. Should I check this out?

JW

nh

It certainly does no harm to correct it.

rcman

This may not be of much help to the loan situation, but just a suggestion -have you still got the storage heaters?

We have them, and cannot yet afford to install GCH. They are ugly and cumbersome, yes. And not always as ecost effective as GCH (especially in the autumn/spring with cold nights and warmer days) but not as costly as people think. In our 3 bedroomed house, we pay a reasonable rate to our electricity bill (£50 a month) and next to nothing on gas (about £2.00 a month) - and have no boiler servcing or plumbing to worry about.

If you can get hold of a few and wire them in, it might last you just through the remaining winter and until you get the credit score situation sorted out - which will take the pressure off needing the loan, and take some of the stress away from your situation.