Declined credit card

Tiredandfrustrated

Just applied for a balance transfer cc with lloydstsb and been declined. I have checked my credit score with experian (who lloydstsb also used) and it is excellent. Do I chase this up as to why it was refused, or just accept and apply for another card?
Would the fact that Ihave an account still in my maiden name with them be an issue? It is in credit by more than the amount I want to transfer, but don't know if that would cause suspicion.

You-kip

Having an Excellent score with Experian is no indication you are good for credit in other words their scoring is meaningless.

The whole picture!

Whats your credit history like?
Any credit cards?
Balances?
Available credit?
Salary?
Missed/late payments?
Elec Roll?

dalesrider

So why have you not updated the account details to your married name?

Tiredandfrustrated

Dalesrider - I have some shares in my maiden name, which I receive dividend cheques from, so need an account in this name to pay the cheques into.
You-kip - on elec roll, good credit history, and several completed credit purchases. I have 3 credit cards, 1 no balance, other few hundred pounds that gets paid off in full every month, 3rd has this balance. Over these 3 cards I have 20k available credit, but only using 16% of this. Salary is over 30k.
I missed one payment in March to this credit card, but this does not show up on the experian report, which lloydstsb used to check my credit history.

You-kip

Tiredandfrustrated wrote: »

Dalesrider - I have some shares in my maiden name, which I receive dividend cheques from, so need an account in this name to pay the cheques into.
You-kip - on elec roll, good credit history, and several completed credit purchases. I have 3 credit cards, 1 no balance, other few hundred pounds that gets paid off in full every month, 3rd has this balance. Over these 3 cards I have 20k available credit, but only using 16% of this. Salary is over 30k.
I missed one payment in March to this credit card, but this does not show up on the experian report, which lloydstsb used to check my credit history.

20k of Available credit at your disposal might be the trigger for refusal.

Tiredandfrustrated

You-kip, why is that?

redpete

Tiredandfrustrated wrote: »

You-kip, why is that?

Because that gives you ready access to debt that would be approx 2/3 of your annual salary. A responsible lender will take into account the level of debt you have easy access to as well as the level of debt you have already.

StuC75

Try chasing it up, to be honest most of the comments on here are just guess work, different lenders have different criteria for how they operate - low credit utilisation may mean 'good financial control' to some and a 'safe bet', whilst some may see that its either not profitable (i.e. continually hop for better rates), or as echoed above by redpete that your a 'shopping spree' ready to explode in terms of what 'may' be used in a short period of time. But assuming you are then able to maintain the payments thats what is profitable to the lender..

The maiden name will just show as an alias, and is probably quite a common occurance..certainly not going to trigger any cifas \ fraud alerts..

You-kip

StuC75 wrote: »

Try chasing it up, to be honest most of the comments on here are just guess work, different lenders have different criteria for how they operate - low credit utilisation may mean 'good financial control' to some and a 'safe bet', whilst some may see that its either not profitable (i.e. continually hop for better rates), or as echoed above by redpete that your a 'shopping spree' ready to explode in terms of what 'may' be used in a short period of time. But assuming you are then able to maintain the payments thats what is profitable to the lender..

The maiden name will just show as an alias, and is probably quite a common occurance..certainly not going to trigger any cifas \ fraud alerts..

As none of us on this forum are a computer generated scoring chip you'll find that most answers on this forum is guess work.

Without guess work there wouldn't be a forum.

Tiredandfrustrated

Thanks everyone for your replies. The unused credit makes sense. One of my current cards will allow a 0% transfer so going to move the money to there. Should I cancel the credit card I am not using? I have kept it as 8k limit and thought useful as an immediate emergency source of money, but if affecting my credit assessment should Ijust get rid?

Experian_company_representative

Ask the lender. They should be able to give you the principle reason for saying no - if you ask - under industry guidelines.

On the issue of available credit and closing old cards - be careful here. For many lenders, have access to credit and not using it is a sign of low risk, which will help your credit score. This Experian Q&A explains in more detail.

James Jones