Credit Report seems fine!!

andrewj2202

I was a little unsure where to post this so forgive me if this is the wrong place!
Myself and my wife were having a problem getting a loan even though we had had the same loan agreed previous but not returned the agreement in time. To make sure there were no major problems and nothing untoward (?) was happening, we both used Credit Expert to view our credit reports. Both were fine and showed nothing was amiss. Yes we do have credit owing but nothing that I can see would harm our chances of getting credit...especially as the loan we were applying for was to replace the current loan...! Even the amount of applications for credit did not seem to justify any reason for refusing our applications. Can anyone shed any light on why we may be struggling?
:mad:

Tixy

Hi

Sometimes when people are in this scenario its because of the amount of existing debt/credit they have compared to their income.
Whilst you intend this to replace a current loan a potential lender will look at this as additional credit and may believe that you cannot afford this loan on top of your existing commitments.

As a rough guide people are finding it hard to get additional credit if it would take their total credit (debt and unused credit available) to over 50% of their income.
Would this apply to you?

If that is not the case then perhaps see if one of the lenders who turned you down will give you any further info. Eg some will sometimes say, its because you are overcommitted or because of your past account conduct etc or because of a default etc.

How many applications have you made in the last 6months?

Aside from that are you financially connected (on your credit report) to anyone else who may have credit problems?

Might also be worth checking your equifax report (which you can get for £2) to see if it flags up anything else.

Moglet

I agree with Tixy, do check your Equifax report as well. My OH had a shocking credit until recently but only with Equifax, non of the defaulted accounts were reported to Experian.

Although if you have old defaulted accounts or have been in trouble recently I'd expect you'd know about it. But mistakes can find their way onto your file and worse case, credit in your name that's not yours.

andrewj2202

Thanks for your responses. As for the earnings query, we originally got a loan for £15,000 when I was training to be a firefighter and my wife was a student so we had one wage plus student loans and grants as our joint 'income'. Now, I am a competent firefighter, my wage has gone up approx £7,000 and my wife is earning roughly ther same as I am so we now earn more than we ever have yet seem to be having more problems than we ever have!
I will contact Equifax as well I think just to make sure but pretty much everything Ive ever done is mentioned on the Experian report. Im 31 now and only ever defaulted back when I was 18ish and that has never caused us problems before.
I did wonder if the problem was the amount of credit we have but apart from our loan and our mortgage, all we have is a credit card with not very much owing (but on our loan application it was detailed that we intended to clear the CC and our existing loan with the new loan) and a store card that I have not used for approximatly 18mths and never had any problems with before that...

Tixy

andrewj2202 wrote: »

Thanks for your responses. As for the earnings query, we originally got a loan for £15,000 when I was training to be a firefighter and my wife was a student so we had one wage plus student loans and grants as our joint 'income'. Now, I am a competent firefighter, my wage has gone up approx £7,000 and my wife is earning roughly ther same as I am so we now earn more than we ever have yet seem to be having more problems than we ever have! ...

Thats pretty much the same for everyone, its really hard to get credit now even with good earnings and a good credit history.

andrewj2202 wrote: »

I will contact Equifax as well I think just to make sure but pretty much everything Ive ever done is mentioned on the Experian report. Im 31 now and only ever defaulted back when I was 18ish and that has never caused us problems before.
I did wonder if the problem was the amount of credit we have but apart from our loan and our mortgage, all we have is a credit card with not very much owing (but on our loan application it was detailed that we intended to clear the CC and our existing loan with the new loan) and a store card that I have not used for approximatly 18mths and never had any problems with before that...

The fact that you detailed on the loan application you intended to consolidate won't make any difference. The new potential lender cannot force you to use the money to pay off the card and existing loan, or you may pay them off and then run the debts back up again so they always look at the maximium potential exposure. ie if you maxed out all your credit could you afford repayments.
For that reason if you don't expect to use the store card again it might be worth closing, especially if it has a high limit. Regarding the CC if it has an excessive limit then again reducing the limit down (but not to close to the balance) can sometimes make a difference.