A Little Help Please!!

Markowska79

Hi there,
I was hoping that someone may be able to guide me in the right direction with a large problem I am encountering with getting accepted for main stream credit.
I have read most of the information available on here & even spent time talking to a debt advice company to see if I could gain any in sight in to why I may be getting refused for credit without any success. So hopefully someone on here may be able to point me in the right direction.


I’ll give you as much back ground information as I can & maybe someone can spot the problem.
Firstly let me start with what I initially thought maybe be the problem I am a polish Nation with full right to reside in the UK. I have lived & worked in the UK for the last three and a half years without any gaps in my employment status within the UK.


When I first started work here in the UK I opened a UK bank account with Lloyds TSB after about six months with the bank the offered me a credit card through them with a credit limit of £350 at an APR of over 30%. I did use the card for a while clearing the balance most months in full due to its high interest rate. During the 11 months I used the card I had no late payments or defaults after eleven months of using the card I decided to close it down as I had no use for the card so I closed the credit card account with them. I have viewed all three of my credit files & on one of the files it shows the account paid on time for the full duration of the time I had the account it also shows on the file as the account being closed. I was surprised to see that the bank had only reported the card on one of the credit files but I am told this is common.


After closing the credit card account with Lloyds I Opened a new current account with RBS/HBOS for my salary to be paid into this account also offered me a lower rate of interest on the overdraft facility that came with the account £200.After a year the bank offered me a loan of £4000 over 26 months at an APR of 29.9%. So far so good even if the APR’s are a little high I expected this due to my time here in the country. I have now paid back 21 months of the loan on time no defaults or late payments shows as perfect on my credit file. Now here is where the problems start to occur in October of last year I decide to move from Scotland down to live with my new partner in England & as we all know when moving house expenses can soon month up so I decide a month before the move that it might be expedient to get a new credit card to give me a little overlap or emergency money during the 2 week gap of moving from one job to my new one in England so I went into my local branch of RBS to apply for a credit card. Although my account was in credit I was not into my overdraft facility to my great surprise my application was turned down no explanation was given to me. At the time I just thought o well & didn’t give it any other though. 2 months latter over Christmas & at my new address in England I decided I would apply for a home shopping catalogue so that I could pay for some items weekly again the application was declined. This time I was starting to be concerned as I knew many people on very low income who had these catalogues let alone me who had a reasonable income over 20k & had always paid my bills on time.


At this point I requested my credit file from the three main credit reference agencies Both myself & my partner have checked over the files & can find no inaccurate information what we did notice however was that RBS credit searched me 9 times on the day I made my application for a credit card so we rang them for explanation to which they could offer none however they said it was impossible to remove the searches & after six months they would be gone anyway. Having read about how searches can lower your credit score adversely & also noticing that I was not on the electoral roll at my new address I decided I would just not apply for any more main stream credit for at least a year but I did decided to apply for a credit building credit card through a sub-prime lender to increase my rating. I applyed through vanquish Bank and received a credit limit of £250 at an APR of 49.7% I have used the card every month & paid of the balance in full every month so now the credit limit is £1000 although it still has the same APR.


Today I received an offer from my bank to apply for a credit card having now been a year since the last debacle I thought I would give them a ring and see if they could run the application through as a quote rather than as a credit search as per the recommendation of the this website they said it was not possible to do that way but so I decided to proceed anyway as I was interested to see if the issues were now fixed. Again my application was declined.
So please can someone guide me as to what to do now. I know credit is not a right but equally it seems totally one sided that I always have to pay such high APRs or even refused basic credit with leaders I know have low scoring criteria.


Just to help with a little further information I have a Mobile phone on contract at £35 month at my address paid on time ever month for the last 12 months my vanquish credit card with £1000 credit limit current balance £0 now having ran for 12 months. A loan with RBS now into its 22 month at £225 paid on time every month no late payments on anything. I rent my house privately have one dependent and a salary before tax of £22k.
If anyone can help me with some advice that would be fantastic.
Please Accept any mistakes as I am still working on my written English
Thanks in advance

Eva

chexum

Markowska79 wrote: »

we did notice however was that RBS credit searched me 9 times on the day I made my application for a credit card

RBS/Natwest has a nice system, they search your credit during the application, not at the end, when you gave all the data. If you re-started it several times, they could record this search every single time...

9 searches in 6 months gives other lenders the impression that you're desperate for credit, so they will consider you a higher, possibly too high risk.

If you moved in the last year or so, and even changed jobs, it could influence your chances badly. They like it better when an applicant demonstrates stability and reliability by living at an address, and working for an employer for a long time. They also need to correlate all your addresses with the electoral roll (you can register on it as an EU citizen for some of the local elections).

And you need to keep using a few different type of credit facilities all the time without missing payments, mobile contact phones, credit cards - even if they are very high APRs. In 1-2 years, it can get much better, it just needs patience.

Based on the last paragraph, it looks like you're on the right track, it may just need some time.

Another recent post on a similar topic with advices from several folks, and further pointers:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/36887448#Comment_36887448

Markowska79 wrote: »

Please Accept any mistakes as I am still working on my written English

You're not alone :cool:

Markowska79

Thank you very much for your reply. just to add a little more information. I have been on the electoral roll for all of my time in the uk my credit file shows both of the address i have lived at in the UK.
I have A £4000 Loan from a main stream Bank with about £1000 out standing on it. I have been in the employment of the same company my whole time in the uk only changing divisions and location in a transfer 12 months ago.I have not applied for any credit in the last year apart from today.My credit files shows a perfect payment record on what credit i have, as listed in the first post.The nine searches that were recorded by my bank are now clear on 2 of the 3 credit files as they were over 1 year ago.

chexum

Everything should be normal then, but you may be still borderline-acceptable. If you changed locations (but not employer) less than 12 months ago, it may look like you changed jobs, Experian (via nhunter) crossreferences the phone numbers and salaries with the move times as well.

Check this site's credit rating guide, and the one on checkmyfile, and then you can try moneysupermarket.com's one to see if they suggest anything good. These don't have any impact on your file. Just tick the contact boxes to not allow them calling you.

Markowska79 wrote: »

Today I received an offer from my bank to apply for a credit card having now been a year since the last debacle I thought I would give them a ring and see if they could run the application through as a quote rather than as a credit search as per the recommendation of the this website they said it was not possible to do that way but so I decided to proceed anyway as I was interested to see if the issues were now fixed. Again my application was declined.

One thing you could do is ask in branch, why they declined you, and if it's scoring/rating based (not "criteria" based), you may be able to appeal the decision, asking what they need to prove your stability. Lloyds seems to be one of the pickiest banks however...

If you just want a better card than Vanquis, the Capital One progress may suit you well, possibly with a bit higher limits - although Vanquis can go quite high with the limits - if it were not for the APRs.

If Lloyds don't want to help, look around, and try a few more banks - if you have only one search recorded in the past year, it doesn't have any impact yet - you have good chances for 1-2 more. Check every advice the above sites can offer.

Sygma may be good if you have a nice, but scarce history, or Barclaycard Initial can be a good last resort, and they are reported to be willing to upgrade to a "real" card with normal APRs after some time.

If something works, let us know, we're curious

It's better to do applications in working hours though - sometimes important systems are offline, so you have a less chance for an immediate response, and system problems can make a negative result.

londoner1998

Markowska79 wrote: »

Thank you very much for your reply. just to add a little more information. I have been on the electoral roll for all of my time in the uk my credit file shows both of the address i have lived at in the UK.
I have A £4000 Loan from a main stream Bank with about £1000 out standing on it. I have been in the employment of the same company my whole time in the uk only changing divisions and location in a transfer 12 months ago.I have not applied for any credit in the last year apart from today.My credit files shows a perfect payment record on what credit i have, as listed in the first post.The nine searches that were recorded by my bank are now clear on 2 of the 3 credit files as they were over 1 year ago.

HI there

you are not alone, Eva- today, for the first time in my life, and after being offered credit cards every single time I speak to my bank, I decided to apply for a credit card for stoozing, mainly, and also because I am planning a trip home in the next few months... like you, I am a foreigner (Spain), but I have been here for 12 years and my credit rating if pretty good , I think )checked 18 months ago and it was pretty good, although not excellent). I applied twice, and twice I have been refused... Could it be that it is Saturday and out of working hours? I find it very strange that they shove credit cards in my face (last time on Thursday, when I opened a savings account with Santander), but then you apply on line and get a 'no'... I am also on the electoral register and never missed a payment on anything...

Be patient, but if you find out why this happens, just let us know... I am as confused as you are...