Bank of Scotland Personal Loan Decline

Quidam

Morning all,

I spent the wee small hours reading the section on the MSE site about credit ratings and noticed that it refers to being told which rating agency a provider has consulted when making its decision.

I recently applied for a loan at my local branch of BoS, to clear my existing loan and car finance. My application was referred to the underwriters and after a phone call the branch staff came back and advised of the decision which was apparently due to me having used my BoS issued credit card. However, at no point was I told which agency they used to score my application.

Is it an oversight on their part to have not told me, or is it maybe a case that they haven't consulted an agency at all and only used internal information (I hold everythingwith them, mortgage, current account, credit card and loan)?

If anyone in the know could advise that would be great!

Cheers,

Q

Apples2

Sounds like you are consolidating uncontrollable debt already. That in itself is normally enough for a decline without the bother of credit checking.

Just list your debts, including your credit card limits (not balance) and compare that little lot to your income.
If the debts are over half your salary, it is likely you will struggle.

Credit file data is really about what APR you are going to be offered on acceptance. This is why you keep it clean and tidy.

If you already have enough debt that you think borrowing even more money is the answer, you will probably be declined.

Quidam

Apples2, thanks for your reply.

You are right, and I am happy to admit that we have in the last 6 months or so taken our eye off the ball financially speaking and spent a little more than we should have. However the APR on offer, when combining the existing loan and car finance, was much less than we are currently paying and hence would have saved us a fair amount each month and allowing us to pay down the card debt much quicker than we are at present. The fact that it was declined was disappointing but it's not the end of the world.

I'm just curious as to how their decision was arrived at.

Cheers

Q

Apples2

Bear in mind the advertised rate is only actually given to just over half of the "successful" applicants, almost as many again get a worse rate and even more get declined.

The only people who realistically get the headline rate are those who simply don't "need" a loan as they have shown they leave enough spare in their acccounts to meet payments, and some.