Eligibility Checks

Estateprincess

Hi, you’re all so helpful I thought I would ask another question.

I have looked at applying for the MBNA card that is advised as the best on MSE for Money Transfers.
I used the MSE eligibility check and it gave 80% :jhowever when I checked the same card on MoneySupermarket it gave a score of 2/10

My question is how reliable are the soft searches carried out by both MSE and MSM? I entered the same information on both so why are they so different?

Has anyone found either of the checks to be more accurate than the other?

Many thanks

stephane_2

I would not trust it whatsoever....every time I've used it myself....every single time it tells me that I can only get cards like Vanquis, capital one etc....etc...yet I've never had one of those cards in my life and never had any issues for years getting credit cards with high limit at 0% interest as well as several loans....so it just tell you how much of a gimmick it is....

bengalknights

The soft searches wont be reliable as there not proper searches

izools

bengalknights wrote: »

The soft searches wont be reliable as there not proper searches

That isn't why they aren't reliable. Just as much data is returned in a soft search as a full search.

The reason they aren't as reliable is

a) these comparison sites search Call Credit but the lenders themselves use Experian, sometimes Equifax, so the data the price comparison gets back may differ from what the lender gets back

b) it is the price comparison site scoring you not the lender themselves, so there will be slight (or big) differences in the criteria and scoring methods.

Estateprincess

So is the check that MoneySavingExpert does just as unreliable as the one that the comparison sites do?

The checker that this site uses is advertised to millions through the weekly email so the number of people using it and trusting it will be huge. If people rely on it solely without conducting further research (and I know they shouldn't but they will) and then get rejected it is going to end up in bad press for Martin and the site as people will say they trust what the site says.

InsideInsurance

Estateprincess wrote: »

The checker that this site uses is advertised to millions through the weekly email so the number of people using it and trusting it will be huge.

And the amount of commission the site generates by those that click through and apply for the cards will also be massive. How do you think the site was able to be sold for £87,000,000?

Estateprincess

InsideInsurance wrote: »

And the amount of commission the site generates by those that click through and apply for the cards will also be massive. How do you think the site was able to be sold for £87,000,000?

I understand that it is another tool for the site to raise funds as the click through rate will be huge BUT if most of those that click through do so based on a high percentage score and are then rejected because the system used is not accurate will it not generate a whole host of negative publicity?

Is there any reason that the checks that MSE does would be more accurate than those done by the comparison sites? :huh:
Or are they all a load of rubbish?!

stephane_2

Those are just a lot of rubbish......

InsideInsurance

Estateprincess wrote: »

Is there any reason that the checks that MSE does would be more accurate than those done by the comparison sites? :huh:

Why would there be?

You may argue that ethically, MSE are higher than MSM and therefore may be less tempted to include commission level in any ranking. But given MSM now owns MSE then are the "ethics" likely to have changed?

On the flip side you have to consider the quality of the analysts working for each company and is a company who's main income comes from these tools more likely to have higher grades of experts writing their algorithms than a site where it is just a small sideline? Of cause MSM now own MSE so may well just reuse their engine and experts.

Certainly more than one insurance peice has been ripped a part as totally wrong and incompetent before (they did delete the article but also the thread pointing out all the basic mistakes they made)

Estateprincess

So basically it is all just guess work!
I think I'll leave it and just keep going as I am.

Thanks for the help!

InsideInsurance

Estateprincess wrote: »

So basically it is all just guess work!

Educated guess work