Is it me, or are credit card companies sexist?

Lois_Lane

On several occasions recently I've been annoyed by credit card companies giving favourable terms to my husband and I really wonder why it happens.

We jointly own our house, we have a joint bank account into which both our salaries are paid, we're both in full time, permanent employment (my salary is more than his!) and we both have a good credit record.

I manage our joint finances, including making applications for credit cards on DH's behalf - we are in the process of paying off debt by balance transferring to cards offering a 0% introductory interest rate, and twice I've made separate applications to the same company, and he's been given a higher credit limit.

This week I applied in my name for the Tesco credit card, and I was turned down, by post. I've just applied in DH's name, and he was accepted - on screen! :mad:

It makes no difference to us whose name the card is in, it's the principal - I'm being discriminated against because I'm female!

Anyone else had similar experiences?

LL

aj3001

Do you moan about your car insurance company being sexist? Thats life, your obvoiusly more of a concern, and I'm sure they are sterotyping women but it happens

Lois_Lane

aj3001 wrote: »

Do you moan about your car insurance company being sexist? Thats life, your obvoiusly more of a concern, and I'm sure they are sterotyping women but it happens

Why am I 'obviously more of a concern'?

Car insurance is a completely different discussion - and my moan about them is the fact that I have to pay more to have DH as a named driver because he has 9 points!

LL

Wyndham

I would imagine it is because of something on your credit file that they are seeing. For example (and I'm just using this as an example, not saying it is true in your particular case) if you had defaults, maybe even from some time ago, and he didn't that would be enough to ring a small alarm bell so you would get a lower limit.

I cannot see how they can discrimiate on sex - it would be illegal for a start.

You could always ask them to explain - they should be able to justify to you why they gave you the limit they did, and justify to him why they gave him the limit they did.

Clariman

I think that there are three possible explanations:

1. There is something specific in your credit history that suggests you may be a higher risk to the lender.

2. Your general profile may suggest that you represent higher risk to lenders than your husband. By 'general profile', I mean that probability shows that people who share similar characteristics to you (e.g. age, sex, post code area, marital status, employment status etc etc etc) are more likely to be a risk than people who share a similar profile to your husband.

3. The cards that you are applying for have a specific target market in mind which your husband fits better than you e.g. it could be that Tesco currrently have 90% of women card-holders and they are looking to re-balance that, so may be more likely to offer men cards at the moment.

Clariman

Meatballs

How can discriminating by sex be illegal if insurance companies do it all the time?

Women may statistically be more of a credit risk then men..?

nathanrh

As others have suggested, might be worth a check on your credit file, my OH and I do exactly the same as you in terms of managing our joint finances, however a check against both of our credit reports revealed a lot of missing history on my OH's report (often a reason for lower limits).

I think also the credit limit assignment process has an element based on statistics relating to 'future earnings potential' as well as current occupation; despite equal pay legislation women are still apparently only paid 80% of men (on average), I'd guess that might also influence credit limits.

Regards

Nathan.

vyvyan_2

Minor differences between you and OH such as length of time with bank and length of time with employer. Prob won't make a huge difference but are all part of the overall picture.

jago25_98

Yes, discrimination is the nature of the business. But is gender a defended variable?

Insurance and credit ratings are legalized discrimination.

Not much I can really think can be done about it. What can be done about a thing of such size? The argument is that discrimination is a fact of life and then we move into complicated shades of grey morals.

To be more accurate, if a credit card company found males to be more reliable at paying back then I believe that they would favor males... and the car insurance analogy for women is a good analogy but only an analogy.

But do credit companies favor males? - I doubt it but that's only me personal thoughts.
I would expect something else to be causing the situation but at the end of the day, only the information in your experian etc credit rating is available to you, the credit company doesn't haven't have to say why they rejected you - it might just be because they didn't like the look of you and they have the power to do that because it's their money.

Mrs_pbradley936

Meatballs wrote: »

How can discriminating by sex be illegal if insurance companies do it all the time?

Women may statistically be more of a credit risk then men..?

Women are demonstratively safer drivers. When using actual facts and statistics which can be proven by assessing available data, sex discirimination does not apply. The figures so that women aged 34 are the least likely to make a claim and that men aged 20 are the most likely to make a claim.

Cannot help with the credit card but my limit is higher than my husband’s and we have joint accounts and similar earnings. The Barclaycard is mine with him as an additional card holder and the Tesco’s is his with me as an additional card holder. You cannot have a joint credit card account (unless this is very new and I have not heard about it yet) in the same way as you can a debit card.

Lois_Lane

pbradley936 wrote: »

You cannot have a joint credit card account (unless this is very new and I have not heard about it yet) in the same way as you can a debit card.

I didn't say we have joint credit card accounts, but that I manage our joint finances. I never add an additional card holder, it reduces the options for transferring balances.

LL