Not accepted for credit card despite having no debt!!

loveleggins

Hello everyone.
I was wondering if you could help answer a question for me as I'm completely confused!
I applied for a Barclaycard, my first ever credit card as I thought it might be a good idea to keep in the back of my wallet incase of emergencies. I have never had ANY debt in my life before, never an overdraft or a loan. Well imagine my surprise when the application got rejected!! I was dumbfounded! I have savings for goodness sake, I always spend within my means! I've had rent and bills that have always been paid on time!
The only thing I could think of was that I have £30 direct debits that come out once a month. I've gotten married recently and moved house so I got everything changed over at the bank. I also checked that my direct debits will still come out and the bank assured me that they would and I wouldn't need to ring the company. Despite them saying this I got a letter to say that the debits hadn't been payed and after sorting this out I found out the bank were rejecting the debits despite saying that my name change wouldn't effect it. This all happened around the time of my credit application. Could this have affected it? If that is the case now it's sorted will my credit score be ok again?
Thanks.

Any

That is why you didn't get a credit card.

Would you lend a £20 to a man who walked up to you on the street? You've never seen him before?

You have no credit history.. you never had any debt and so the lenders cannot check how disciplined you are with the debt.

On top of the pages, on the left, go to part "loan, credit cards" and have a read of few of Martin's articles - mainly "credit history and how to improve it".

Just to add - the credit report only monitores credits - the fact you have savings is completely meaningless when applying for credit. They want to know how good are you in repaying debt.

As an answer to your question about your DD affecting this - that depends what kind of companies it was - if it was mobile phone bill that didn't get paid that might have marked "late payment" on your credit report, but I doubt it.

Request your credit report at Experian - the statutory one for £2 - do not sign up, and do NOT pay for their credit score - it is meaningless and waste of money. Then check the report and whether there are any marks such as late payments on it and whether there are no accounts opened of which you are not aware (that can happen when either the agency makes mistake and mistakes you with someone or someone stole you identity).

Engeroosi

Because you have had no debt then credit companies are wary of you, you need to buy something on finance and pay it off or get a contract mobile and pay it off. You need to have a history before being considered for credit, It's stupid!!!

Sharon87

Well first things first - get yourself on the electoral role at your new house. It may take a while to appear on credit reports though. Secondly the DDs may not have affected it as they wouldn't appear on your credit report (maybe, depends on what it was for) and if they do appear it may take some time.

What card did you apply for? low interest rate? Who do you bank with? Try and get a card with them as they know your credit history with them, so you will have an internal score (your bounced DDs will go against you though).

Don't despair credit cards are hard to get in these times, go for ones with a high interest rate as you are more likely to be successful, just pay it off every month you use it. Also don't apply for too many cards in a short period of time as this affects your credit rating.

Good luck!

greendollar

You manage your money to well , these people are only interested in how much money they can fleece you out of , not with providing you with a service .
Why would they want to provide you with a credit card knowing that you'll pay the balance off in full every month leaving them with no chance of charging you some rediculous amount for being in debt to them .

Any

greendollar wrote: »

You manage your money to well , these people are only interested in how much money they can fleece you out of , not with providing you with a service .
Why would they want to provide you with a credit card knowing that you'll pay the balance off in full every month leaving them with no chance of charging you some rediculous amount for being in debt to them .

I make money out of credit card companies (as many do on this site).
And I still manage to get credit.

Which somehow doesn't comply with your argument...

loveleggins

Thanks.
I suppose when you say it that way I can see their point.
Although I do find it ironic that they'd give credit to someone who had loads of debt but refuse it to someone with none who is good with money. Surely that's what got the country into the state it's in now? Credit companies offering people credit that they couldn't afford to pay back? And how do I prove I am good with credit (the credit card I went for was with Barclays who I am with) if I can't get on the credit ladder in the first place? It's pretty frustrating. I do have a contract phone that I pay off monthly so it is good to know that once the contract ends it will go on my credit report. The direct debit was just for a portrait studio (I would usually have paid that in full but my wedding was coming up so I was strapped for cash!). Like I said it is all sorted now and it's just annoying that the bank told me it would be fine when it wasn't.
I'm going to try that Experian thing though. £2 isn't bad to find out your credit history.
I've also sent off a letter not long ago to the council registering us on the electoral roll.

[Deleted User]

You'll probably be able to get some sort of credit card - just not the one you may want. Aqua, Vanquis etc would be worth a try. They're high APRs but that doesn't matter if you're paying off every month. After a while, you can apply for something better.

Any

Loveleggings,

£2 to find out your credit history it's not only not bad, but you should also do it at least every 12 mths. Just to keep on top of things and check there is no mistake and that noone stole your identity.

No, it's not ironic at all. I only met you on the forum so I would logicaly not lend you money either.
Exactly because of the past silly lending the banks had to introduce tighter criteria.

It is annoying that your own bank didn't give you credit card, we always advise go to your bank first as they are the only ones who also have access to your current account and savings if you have it with them and will take that into account (where the other lenders cannot see your current account managings).

As I said before, read up on the Credit score and how to improve it article, it is very helpfull. http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/credit-rating-credit-score

As advised before, make sure that you are on electroral roll. That also shows on your report and it is very important that you are on it, because that is one of the checks - that you are who you are and you live where you say you live etc.

They also like to see stability - ie how long have you been in your job, at your address etc..

Just look at it from the perspective if you were to lend someone money, what would you consider - it really all makes sense, but many people are caught off guard.

Good luck

loveleggins

Thanks.
I only intend to use it for emergencies, or maybe to buy a single item on it and pay it off straight away so the high interest shouldn't effect me hopefully. At least this way I'm getting on the credit ladder. What I don't get with Barclays though is that they offer me loans all the time (£15,000 was the last one!) and I've been with them for 16 years (since I was 8 years old!) so I don't get why they don't trust me! lol. Other companies can't check my savings and account balances but surely Barclays can if I'm applying through them and have my bank accounts with them? It's all confusing I don't get banks! lol.

Any

Noone gets Barclays...:-))