First Direct Account - Declined

Makaer

Hi,

I applied for the First Direct Current account to take advantage of the Reg Saver, but have just been informed my application was declined.

Some background info; I have a Credit Card satisfied on my account from around 4 and a half years ago. Since then I have had no adverse credit. I have a Capital One credit card with a £1400 limit, and a new Aqua card with unknown limit at the moment, as I have not received all the paperwork. The Capital One card usually has between £200-£300 spent on it per month and always paid off in full, usually as soon as I can see the transaction online.

I have 2 other current accounts, one with HSBC which my salary goes in to and one with Halifax which all my bills are paid from. I earn a good salary (£75000) and have no overdrafts, loans or any other credit agreements except the ones above.

I am 24 and living with parents, and have only had the HSBC account for 6 months, which I put on the application form, which I understand might be an issue?

Can you please advise as to what sort of criteria you think they are looking for? Any way I can try again or am I now doomed to wait for several months if ever?
I havent heard of any body being rejected for this account so far, that is why I am concerned. Any one else know of any rejections, and possible reasons for them?

Thanks

Makaer

crispy_chris

Assuming you mean you defaulted on a credit card a few years ago, that'll be why they've rejected you.

Wait for the adverse history to no longer show on your credit file and I'm sure they'd happily accept you.

Makaer

Yes I wasnt particularly clear with that. I defaulted on a credit card for £550 and satisfied the debt.

Would this one default cause the rejection? Even though I have no other adverse credit history? I was also not applying for any overdraft, just a current account so as to access the savings account.

ChopperST

Makaer wrote: »

Yes I wasnt particularly clear with that. I defaulted on a credit card for £550 and satisfied the debt.

Would this one default cause the rejection? Even though I have no other adverse credit history? I was also not applying for any overdraft, just a current account so as to access the savings account.

Both my wife and I recently switched to First Direct (or tried to). She has a satisfied default on a credit card from 4 years ago on her file but no other adverse credit and has current accounts with Santander and HBOS and two other credit cards which are cleared in full every month and no other debts apart from mortgage.

I was accepted as I have no adverse history but she was rejected. Her history seems pretty identical to yours.

I would seem First Direct are only picking customers with excellent credit history and no negatives on their file whatsoever. (Which of course is their perogative). I'd wait for the default to fall off and try again in a few years.

Edit - Even though you aren't asking for an O/D with a current account you can still go overdrawn as the bank will honour certain standing orders and DD allowing you to go into an unauthorised overdraft.

Makaer

ChopperST wrote: »

Both my wife and I recently switched to First Direct (or tried to). She has a satisfied default on a credit card from 4 years ago on her file but no other adverse credit and has current accounts with Santander and HBOS and two other credit cards which are cleared in full every month and no other debts apart from mortgage.

I was accepted as I have no adverse history but she was rejected. Her history seems pretty identical to yours.

I would seem First Direct are only picking customers with excellent credit history and no negatives on their file whatsoever. (Which of course is their perogative). I'd wait for the default to fall off and try again in a few years.

Yup our histories do seem very similar! Thanks for the response. I guess I was just hoping the default wouldnt affect the application as there was no credit request. Looks like ill just have to miss out on their Reg Saver rate for a while.

ChopperST

Makaer wrote: »

Yup our histories do seem very similar! Thanks for the response. I guess I was just hoping the default wouldnt affect the application as there was no credit request. Looks like ill just have to miss out on their Reg Saver rate for a while.

I think Norwich and Peterborough have a 4% regular saver with no need for a current account - http://www.nandp.co.uk/savings/regular-savings/regular-saver/

Not quite as good but the next best place if your ISA allowance is full?

Just seen you pay off the credit card "as soon as the transaction appears online" you should wait for your monthly statement to generate and then pay off in full. The CRA's will recieve a £0 spend report on your credit file from the CC company as it is the monthly statement data they see. The best thing to see on your credit file each month is Makaer spent £100 this month and he paid £100 off this month. At the moment it would look like you aren't using the card and unused credit can also be a negative point on your file to a potential lender.

a51_ufo

Makaer wrote: »

I applied for the First Direct Current account to take advantage of the Reg Saver

Makaer wrote: »

I have 2 other current accounts, one with HSBC

HSBC offers a 6% regular saver for customers. I opened mine through their online banking was set up in a couple of days. I applied for First Direct account and got accepted - even though I have 4 missed payments on my credit report ...

electrobix99

You should really wait until your statement to pay off your capital one card off. If you pay every time it shows up online then your statement and therefore reported balance on the card every month would be 0.

At least that is my understanding on it.

seriousDFW

Just being nosey, what job do you do for £75k at the age of 24?

MoneySaverLog

Any hint of bad debt and first direct will reject the application. If the default is showing best to wait until it is removed from your credit file before applying to them.

Makaer

electrobix99 wrote: »

You should really wait until your statement to pay off your capital one card off. If you pay every time it shows up online then your statement and therefore reported balance on the card every month would be 0.

At least that is my understanding on it.

Is there a certain cut off date generally that I should pay after to allow the payment to appear on my statement? Is there a reason that my payments are not registered if I pay them off straight away?
@a51 and @chopperST I have the NPBS and HSBC Reg Saver at the moment, but was looking at the FD one as the next reg saver.
@seriousDFW, I am lucky enough to work in IT in a top 3 investment bank.