can't get a loan, no idea why!

chiefdave

here's a brief outline of my situation, if anyones got any ideas as to why i'm being turned down, what i can do about it or alternative places to try (wary of making numerous applications as it'll put my credit "score" down) then let me know!

I've been with Nationwide for about 4 years now, in that time i've never gone overdrawn, had a direct debit returned or anything like that. I've also had a joint account with my girlfriend with them for about a year and recently my girlfriend opened her own account there. I've got a personal loan with them on my own account with around £1,200 to pay off, a credit card i pay off in full each month, 2 mobile accounts, sky, broadband, gym, union fee, 3 magazine subs, car and house insurance, household bills and 2 charity payment all paid by direct debit every month never with a problem. My girlfriend owns the flat we live in outright (no mortgage or rent to pay). We both work full time, i earn £25K she earns £13K. She has never had a credit card, loan or even been overdrawn.

i wanted to borrow £10,000 which would be to pay off the exisiting loan, £1,500 i borrowed off my dad and have been paying off slowly (he's not hassling for it but has recently retired and could use the money) with the rest being for my wedding next easter. I applied with Nationwide for a "top-up" loan and got turned down, as usual no reason was given so i decided to check all 3 of my credit records. All 3 came back fine apart from not having me down on the electoral register and one incorrect linked address. I confirmed with the council that i am on the electoral register and then got that changed at all 3 agencies, i also had the linked address investigated and removed.

Now confident my record was as good as anyones could be i applied to Northern Rock, couple of days later i got a letter of acceptance and returned the forms, they then phoned to say that i needed to provide proof of mortgage, i pointed out that i'd never said i had a mortgage and explained the situtation, there was much phoning round as they tried to work out what that came under and then turned round and said they were going to decline the application despite the fact they'd already accepted it!

To get round the fact that i'm neither a tennant or a home owner i decided (along with my girlfriend) to make an application via my nationwide joint account. This was at first reffered and then declined, again no reason given.

I'm at a loss now as to why i can't get a loan and how to resolve the situation, seems crazy to me that looking at a joint application with 2 people in the situation we're in there would be anything to turn it down on.

Help!!!

Emmzi

First thing, multiple applications won't help. Give it a break for 6 months.

Secondly, 10k is high against a 25k salary.

Thirdly, you have no assets, so your assets versus liabilities ratio doesn't look good.

Four, have you moved house a lot in the last few years? If you are over 12 months at the same address, that tends to help.

Five, how stable is your employment? Permananet, full time, same employer for over 2 years is best...

As you have a year until the wedding, could you save for it? (congratulations by the way!)

chiefdave

Emmzi wrote: »

First thing, multiple applications won't help. Give it a break for 6 months.

would be nice but to get out there next easter i've got to start booking things now!

Emmzi wrote: »

Secondly, 10k is high against a 25k salary.

what kind of % of salary do you think is usual? nationwide keep telling me i can borrow up to £25K and i've had a higher % of salary as a loan before though that was several years ago (about 10) with a different bank. I would have expected it to go more on if the repayments are affordable and how long the term is, i'd be looking at £200 a month over 5 years, my last loan with them was over 3 years and looking at the account they can see i can afford the repayments

Emmzi wrote: »

Thirdly, you have no assets, so your assets versus liabilities ratio doesn't look good.

true for my sole apllication but on the joint application there's a £100K property with no mortgage. I took plenty of credit out in my younger years when i would consider i was more of a risk

Emmzi wrote: »

Four, have you moved house a lot in the last few years? If you are over 12 months at the same address, that tends to help.

Been here over a year and we were at our previous address (again owned outright) for about 4 years

Emmzi wrote: »

Five, how stable is your employment? Permananet, full time, same employer for over 2 years is best...

Both of us are in full time permanent employment.

Emmzi wrote: »

As you have a year until the wedding, could you save for it? (congratulations by the way!)

would be nice but saving £10K in 12 months would be impossible, plus everything needs to be booked and a lot of it paid for now.

Interestingly my girlfriend has spoken to a few of her friends about it and several of them have said they applied to nationwide and were turned down and then applied elsewhere and got the loan. My girlfriend has been with Lloyds for 15 plus years, was about to leave to move to nationwide but only because thats where our joint account is and it would make it easier to transfer between the 2. Might be worth her applying with them.

chiefdave

been speaking to my girlfriend to find out exactly what nationwide said as they phoned the house when i wasn't in. The woman who dealt with the application said she was surprised it was even sent for refferal given the information held on file with nationwide. Apparently it got sent for referral due to "credit score" which i find odd as we've check all those and there's nothing on them that could be marked down. It then went off to someone to be manually assesed and she couldn't believe it had been turned down and didn't really know what to say or suggest as she said she couldn't see any possible reason for it being turned down. Obviously it's the usual frustration everyone has when being turned down that you can't find out why. Even more so when you've carried out checks before applying to make sure there shouldn't be any problems.

xgingerx

Hi youve got me concerned now as I was going to apply for a loan with my bank nationwide and would like to know what you find out as been the problem

Emmzi

I would look at no more than 30% of salary as reasonable for total other lending.. however, you seem to meet other criteria well.

So I'm not sure. It's unlikely you'll get a detailed response from the bank as they tend to keep details of credit scoring policy secret.

chiefdave

Emmzi wrote: »

I would look at no more than 30% of salary as reasonable for total other lending.. however, you seem to meet other criteria well.

So I'm not sure. It's unlikely you'll get a detailed response from the bank as they tend to keep details of credit scoring policy secret.

well our joint salary (and it is a joint application) is £38K and the only other lending we have is an exisiting loan with Nationwide which will be paid off in full by this new loan.

Further investigation and calls to nationwide they are telling me it was initially reffered as it was showing us as not on the electoral roll, i have checked with the local council and all 3 credit reference agencies and that's not the case. they then said that after referral it came back refused due to a low credit score which doesn't add up to me given that i've checked our credit records and there's nothing at all that could be considered a problem and also as when it was being referred i was told it was so it could be manually assesed!

i know they don't have a duty to give out credit to anyone but the facts they are giving me just don't seem to add up, even the woman at nationwide who was putting the application through said it doesn't make sense!

chiefdave

went into lloyds yesterday, after about 10 mins the loan was completed, very impressed by their service, the guy was really on the ball and knew what was going on, inclined to move my account over to them.
nationwide don't seem to know what they're doing as they've sent me an email asking me to complete an online loan application that has already been completed!!!