Credit Rejection Frustration and Concern

regency_man

I need some advice from the good people of the forum. For several years I've occasionally applied for credit cards (no more than once or twice a year) when I've seen a good offer. I've got no debts (apart from the good old student loan) and I have one credit card (an old Alliance & Leicester Platinum which became an MBNA Platinum after the Santander merger) with a £5000 limit on which I spend and repay in full every month, so I'm just interested in cash-backs and rewards cards, not big borrowing card. I've never been accepted for any that I've applied for, rejected every time. I've never given it much of a second thought as I didn't need the borrowing so I've just taken it on the chin and carried on with life.

However I'm now in a situation where I travel abroad very frequently with work and I am also in a long-distance relationship, so I am spending several months a year out of the UK. So, suddenly two cards caught my eye, the American Airlines AMEX (an MBNA product), and the Santander Zero card. The AMEX because AA is my airline of choice, I'm already a Platinum status flyer and this would let me earn reward flights even faster and save money seeing my girlfriend. The Zero card I wanted because of the low foreign exchange fees.

So before I applied again I decided to take a look at my credit reports due to the rejections in the past. I was shocked. My credit report was appalling - not because of debt but because of the horrendous inaccuracy and plethora of mistakes across the whole file. Basically both Experian and Equifax had no record of ANY of my currently running accounts - all they had were two old store-cards which were settled and haven't been used for years. They both had me as not being on the electoral roll - despite being registered at my current address for over 2 years.

I got on the phone with both of them and thanks to an extremely helpful lady at Experian and a not-so-helpful lady at Equifax I had the above corrected. It turned out minor differences in the way the name of my apartment building was being entered as my address with the various lenders and the Council was causing my accounts not to appear under my file. I find it amazing this has been going on for years without me even realising... So anyway, I'm now 1 electoral roll entry, 1 credit card, 1 current account and 3 utility providers better off on the report -which accompanied a significant jump in my score up to 'Excellent' rating.

Great - that's one problem sorted!

So now I apply for the American Airlines AMEX - did not get instant approval which was worrying. 10 days later nothing back from them so I phone and get told I'd been declined. The lady was very helpful, she explained that they did not have enough of a profile for me to be able to make a credit decision - apparently they don't take into account any utility suppliers and all they could use was my existing credit card. She explained that because this card was with the same company (MBNA) and despite them being completely satisfied with the way I was running my account, it did not provide enough evidence to prove the ability to borrow further from them. Odd, I thought. So I asked her for advice on how I could make myself more likely to get accepted - she said they needed to see evidence of a well managed account from another provider and recommend that I get a credit card from my current bank.

PERFECT I thought, because that's EXACTLY what I was intending on doing anyway, I bank with Santander (thanks to the A&L merger) and I wanted the Santander Zero card.

So I apply for the Santander card. Again no instant approval but I've been reading this is not unusual. However sure enough, 10 days later I've heard nothing from them and I phone to discover I've been rejected. Santander were much less helpful and would explain nothing more than the fact I did not meet their requirements, no matter how hard I pushed them.

So I'm flabbergasted. I clearly haven't borrowed enough in my life to be considered a good borrower, I get that. But my own bank rejected me on a card.... So where do I go from here?? Is it easier to get a loan than a credit card? Should I take out a loan just to repay it?? - seems like a waste of money to be honest but I suppose I could invest the money and try to recoup the interest charges in that way.

As I say, this is not life or death, I don't need the borrowing, but the perks of these cards would save me considerable sums of money over the next few years and these rejections have put me really on edge... I've been a bit free-spirited in relation to my credit in the past because I haven't needed to borrow. But I will be looking to buy a house in the next 5 years and it's really playing on my mind, to the point I'm losing sleep worrying about being rejected for a mortgage when I need one.

HELP!!!

Voyager2002

I doubt very much that you would be rejected for a mortgage on the basis of what you have posted. However, it would be wise for you to enlarge your credit history, if necessary by applying for the cards that are marketed as being to enable people to repair an impaired credit record (Vanquis, etc.).

See if you can get a card like the Post Office mastercard that also does not surcharge transactions that are not in sterling. An added bonus: it emailed me today saying that it also offers 'free' foreign currency cash when it is used at the Post Office.

regency_man

Voyager2002 wrote: »

I doubt very much that you would be rejected for a mortgage on the basis of what you have posted. However, it would be wise for you to enlarge your credit history, if necessary by applying for the cards that are marketed as being to enable people to repair an impaired credit record (Vanquis, etc.).

See if you can get a card like the Post Office mastercard that also does not surcharge transactions that are not in sterling. An added bonus: it emailed me today saying that it also offers 'free' foreign currency cash when it is used at the Post Office.

Thanks for the advice Voyager2002 - should I be leaving some time between applying for another card like the post-office one? I've applied and been rejected for 2 this month, I've read this can be viewed negatively. If so, how long is good to wait?

I'll be in America for a couple of weeks in July and for almost all of September - I was hoping to have something in place by then. Is there any other way of dodging the foreign fees?

Dabooka

Normally 3 or so in six months is considered a safe number of applications. It might be worth noting htat the rating and score or totally worthless, as the credit agency doesn't a) lend money or b) take into account other things such as,oh I don't know, wages for instance? Seriously old fruit, stop paying for your score and rating.

Two things spring to mind, One is if you've only recently sorted out the errors, then it might be there's not enough history built up yet, as the second thing is you're applying for some "high end" cards (sure, not quite Amex Black territory, but you get my meaning). You might just need to leave it six months an try again.

By the way, some of the Amwx cards give lounge access which depending in th spend / frequency /distance of travel might be worth looking into?

regency_man

Well, that's the frustrating thing, I'm pretty sure if they ignored the credit agencies and just looked at my financial circumstances they would be happy to lend to me! I'm in my 20s, earning £45k, I live well within my means and save a fair amount too. I can only guess they might have realised they are never going to make any money off me through interest or late fees. Because they must make a small baseline loss by zeroing the fees (otherwise many more providers would offer this as an incentive), and if I only ever used the card abroad, they could actually lose out by giving me a card. Damn them for being so clever!

I don't really see what is 'high-end' about these cards - I thought they were pretty bog-standard to be honest. However I am keen to increase my 'creditworthiness' as seen by lenders, you never know when it might be needed, so is there are site where you can compare cards against ease of being accepted?

I already get lounge access so that would not be an immediate need right now, but thanks for the tip-off.

rosmersholm

How about trying the Barclays pre-application check thingy - which will tell you the likelihood of acceptance without a hard credit search (doesn't count as a search). Just been accepted myself for a solid credit limit and am similar profile (though < income).

https://letmechoose.barclaycard.co.uk/

Wallhart

Why would you even consider a loan if you don't need to borrow and you only wanted the CC's for their rewards.

Try the Barclayard checker as stated above or actually go into Santander and arrange a meeting so you can discuss why you have been rejected.

regency_man

I don't want a loan, but I want to improve my credit position and it seems my lifestyle doesn't please credit-card lenders. I figure Loans would be easier for me to get, with a loan the lender's profit is built in, with the credit card they rely on interest payments and fees, which they are not going to get from me.

I tried the Barclays checker today twice at work, but it never showed me any results, it almost looked as if the results page was broken, but that's not unusual work blocks some random stuff. SO I just tried at home - I get a note saying that I'm not eligible for any of their products. :-(

What is going on?!?!?!?!

Are Santander obliged to tell me more information if I go into a branch? because they gave me absolutely nothing over the phone.

pompeyred

Hi,

You might consider that whilst updates to your credit files held with Experian and Equifax will be very quick the actual feed of data into the banking supply chain might operate under very different timescales.

The subscription by lenders will under normal circumstances request live data from the credit file providers, anything that picks up detrimental data, these things are CCJ's, defaults, searches.

Anything that adds credit worthiness is fed on a periodic basis (did pay on time, paid this amount, balance at time of paying etc).... it is the latter that the credit providers use to build profiles over time and hence why the comment regarding credit file providers scores being useless.

I think it might just be a case of hold out for a few months and see if the data feed information allows for a better profile.