Declined for Credit Card

quantic

Ok, need a little help. Me and my partner just applied for a new Credit Card with Sainsburys and have been declined. I can't figure out why this might be. It said that our current commitments exceed their requirements.

Info about us:

• £2780 combined monthly income.
• Both our Credit Cards have £0 balance.
• Never missed a payment, both have 999 Credit Score.
• Financial Commitments are £670 per month (Mortgage + Car Finance).
• £1630 disposable income after all bills/mortgage/petrol/food.

Should we cancel current credit cards before applying? Could old balances be showing up from our current credit cards? We had £2000 on them both until the end of last month. Any help would be appreciated.

BugsyBrowne

quantic wrote: »

Ok, need a little help. Me and my partner just applied for a new Credit Card with Sainsburys and have been declined. I can't figure out why this might be. It said that our current commitments exceed their requirements.

Info about us:

• £2780 combined monthly income.
• Both our Credit Cards have £0 balance.
• Never missed a payment, both have 999 Credit Score.
• Financial Commitments are £670 per month (Mortgage + Car Finance).
• £1630 disposable income after all bills/mortgage/petrol/food.

Should we cancel current credit cards before applying? Could old balances be showing up from our current credit cards? We had £2000 on them both until the end of last month. Any help would be appreciated.

Take no notice of the credit score you payed for, you and the other 10 thousand people with the same question has proved that a 999 credit score with experian is as good as 199, as lenders use other information when deciding who to lend to.
You say your balance is Zero whats your limit, as this could be a factor on their decision if you have access to a little to much credit already..

quantic

My current limit is £2000 and my partners is £1000, maybe we would have more luck if we cancelled these first. Have never had any problem getting/paying for debt in the past so was slightly confused by this. I take your point on the credit rating, but even so we have never missed a payment for anything in our lives, never been late, have had consistent income for the past 5 years so thought it should be ok.

Tixy

You may never have had problems getting credit in the past but equally the economy and lending market has never really been like it is at the moment.
You could try cancelling your credit cards but if you are still declined this could leave you without cards. Certainly no point you both closing your cards as credit card applications are only done for individuals, not joint applications.

Which one of you applied for the sainsbury's card? Remember they will only take into account that person's income and commitments.

Do you have any other open credit aside from your credit cards and car loan? eg old cards or catalogues that are settled but still on your credit report as open? overdrafts?

KingElvis

Sainsburys, Tesco and Asda are all very picky and generally only take the cream of the crop to be honest.

You just didn't meet their criteria :-)

Any

quantic wrote: »

My current limit is £2000 and my partners is £1000,

Such a low limits suggest that these were your first cards?

quantic wrote: »

maybe we would have more luck if we cancelled these first..

With such a negligible limits I doubt it

quantic wrote: »

Have never had any problem paying for debt in the past.

The question is how much debt you had in past??
From what you said on here, you didn't had much debt in past? What you need is good repayment history - by good I mean a lot to show, not that you can pay off one card that you used few times.

Might have misunderstood your past though...

quantic

Er, not had much debt in the past. Took out a 11,000 loan to buy a car 3 years ago and paid that back, never missed a payment. Have only had 1 mortgage. Have had a Tesco Credit Card, which I've spent around 9k on over the past 10 months, which is now at 0. I was only surprised because the credit card I have now is with Tesco, which as King Elvis has pointed out are very picky, but I am in a much better financial situation now compared to then, have paid off 11k loan since and have increased my wage by 6k.

For reference, the Tesco card was indeed my first card, but I only kept the 2k limit to stop myself going over it, not because I wasn't approved for more.

MFWannabe

Can i ask why you have applied for another credit card when you already have one each? Was the Sainsbury card on a 0% for purchases promotion? If not then i would just ask your current card companies if they have any special offers for you at the moment.
I would be reluctant to cancel these cards as the limits are quite low and as another poster said if you get refused for other cards you could leave yourselves with no cards at all

quantic

Both of our cards have just gone out of the 0% period. Hence getting new cards.