Nationwide Soft-Search

RichL74

It's usually upto £1000 and 19.9% that gets a decline however that isn't a green light to say you should just click apply now. As Maestro says, you need to check everything on your credit file (for Experian) is clean and no, if it gives you a score of 900+ dont pay any attention to that.

You need to be on the electoral roll.
You need to have no CCJ's or any defaults UNDER 6 years
You need to have not missed any payments on ANY credit agreement in the last 12 months (but that is not written in stone, so at least 24 months)
If you have other credit cards or loans up to their limit that will go against you - if you have £10k worth of credit and are £9.5k into that credit, that will go against you.
If you've moved address in the last year

Factor all of those in before clicking 'apply now'

rartherinv

droiderm wrote: »

Just to satisy my morbid curiousity - Have you had credit issues at previous addresses? Do you have any at your current address? Have you lived at your current address less than 3 years?

Hi droiderm,

I have none of the common minor credit issues on my file which you are curious about (same address and electoral roll for over a decade, all personal info is correct, 5 years flawless payment history, credit available&used is low in relation to salary but not small enough to distrust.)

The issue with my report is that I have one small default still showing from 5 years 9 months ago (3 months till report is completely clean). This is indeed a fair reason to be turned away by a prime lender, but the point of them doing the soft search was to let me know if the info on my report means i will be able to get credit from them. They did the soft search and I was a viable borrower, then they did the full search and I was no longer viable. So does this imply they cannot see credit account information on a soft search, only on a full search? If so, that is a complete waste of time and misleading as I would not have chosen to have a full footprint if i had not been told after searching your report we think we can offer you this amount at this interest rate... i would have just not applied at all.

RichL74

^^ But you have admitted now that you have a default that would have stopped me applying plain and simple.

The soft search considers your name, addresss, salary, other cards or loans, age etc.

I agree it is not an ideal solution but I think where everyone needs to take a step back from calling this thing useless and to obtain your credit report first before you click that apply button.

Those that do this and claim to have a perfect record from Experian (I dont mean the pointless score) and yet still get declined well maybe in those cases it is worth an appeal to Nationwide or on the other hand, maybe you just dont meet their criteria plain and simple - you wont ever change that, just because you think you are brilliant Nationwide just wont agree and you are wasting your time.

My approach was:-

1) Obtain credit report from Experian
2) Do soft search
3) Panic whilst hovering over the 'apply now' button
4) Finally think 'sod it'
5) Clicked 'apply now'

If my report had come back from Experian with even the smallest default on it (you call it small, they still call it a default) I wouldn't have applied and I wouldn't be saying the soft search is a waste of time.

sistafromanothermista

Hi that's standard. Again, with mine what i was 'soft' quoted was what i got

BugsyBrowne

I'm moving house at the start of January so applied for the nationwide card obviously before moving it quoted 4.8k 15.9% and I got this afterwards
Thank you. We are pleased to tell you that your application has been approved in principle. Approved in principle means that subject to some final checks we'll be able to give you your card as quoted.

We now need you to sign your credit agreement and then answer some questions on the next few screens before your application can be completed. Signing your agreement online (instead of having to wait for a paper agreement to sign and return) means you can get your card even quicker.

I take it this is accepted?

RichL74

It was when I did mine the same way.

BugsyBrowne

RichL74 wrote: »

It was when I did mine the same way.

Cheers Rich never been a great lover of soft search credit tools and I'm normally the first to slate them but quite impressed with nationwide with their tool TBH.

droiderm

Its meaningless and a waste of time.
Its a marketing gimmick.

RichL74

Its not meaningless nor a gimmick. You just need to ensure you have your house in order before applying.

ratherinv claimed it was a waste of time when it declined him / her but a subsequent post from them shows they have a default on their account - why didn't they check this first of all BEFORE applying instead of slagging the way it works off afterwards?

droiderm

Make sure your credit history is great before applying!
That applies to any lender!