halifax refused me. What!!!

[Deleted User]

we just transferred our smile current account to halifax and all went well. We retain our smile cc with a limit of £4500 so I thought it would be easy to get a halifax cc, I was refused!! unbelievable, we have never been in the red, anywhere. I am retired and my income isn`t that big, dh hs a good income although retired. Is it that? My idea was that we should get the halifax cc and gradually be using that instead of smile, how naive was that

I am cross to say the least. I am not applying for anything else from halifax. Good job that the smile card is active and going strong

[Deleted User]

Could be your income. Could be something else on your credit file. Have you checked them?

Don't take it personally. You just don't meet their criteria.

lisyloo

Get your credit reports (preferably all of them).
Noddle is free (call credit).
Experian and Equifax are £2 each for a statutory report.
My advice is don't get a free trial, don't pay for a score (largely meaningless) and don't pay extra for an on-line report - none of it contains anything more than the statutory report.

Check for obvious errors e.g. checks or credit accounts you didn't apply for.
If there is nothing odd, then come back with more info - like how many credit accounts you have, available credit to income ratio, % of credit used, number of checks in the last 6 months and 12 months.

Confirm that your shown as being on the electoral role.

pheonix254

First thing to do is to have a look at your statutory credit reports to see if there are issues with your credit file. Callcredit do theirs free through noddle, experian and equifax may have free trials but in my view they're a hassle to get out of - just ask for your £2 report. If there are errors in there it may prevent you from getting credit.

That said - It may be that on your low income (as you're a retiree) that the £4500 limit on your other card is seen as having access to too much credit - In my experience, Halifax like giving large credit card limits, so if they're not able to accept your risk profile, they wont - don't forget that it's all under the guise of banking responsibly, lending money to those who can afford to repay. Whilst you could try reducing your limit and available credit (things like available overdrafts count against you here too), there is also a chance that you'll be rejected again, and that smile also wont let you put your limit back to where it was.

Different companies want different types of customers - case in point, I was rejected for a £200 increase on one of my cards with a £500 limit one bank, but accepted and given a collosal £5000 limit with an entirely new card from another bank. You're playing a game against an actuarial spreadsheet which assigns you a risk profile. You can curse it until you're blue in the face, try to reason with it, prove it wrong time after time after time, but it will not change anything because the computer says no.

I'd just be asking if I really needed the Halifax plastic if I had a perfectly good credit-card already.

Scrootum

kittie wrote: »

we just transferred our smile current account to halifax and all went well. We retain our smile cc with a limit of £4500 so I thought it would be easy to get a halifax cc, I was refused!! unbelievable, we have never been in the red, anywhere. I am retired and my income isn`t that big, dh has a good income although retired. Is it that? My idea was that we should get the halifax cc and gradually be using that instead of smile, how naive was that. We pay it all off in full every month and often get to half the limit

I am cross to say the least. I am not applying for anything else from halifax. Good job that the smile card is active and going strong

Don't take it personally. Chances are that they just cannot see how they are going to make any money from your custom.

opinions4u

So a company that knows little about you extends one facility to you, a current account, and you automatically think they should immediately provide another?

It looks like a sensible and prudent approach to me. Give it six months and they'll probably be throwing a choice of cards at you.

cajef

Scrootum wrote: »

Chances are that they just cannot see how they are going to make any money from your custom.

And how would the Halifax know that?

Tixy

Scrootum wrote: »

Don't take it personally. Chances are that they just cannot see how they are going to make any money from your custom.

If OP is often spending up to £2200 a month on purchases then they would likely be a considerably profitable customer with all the transactions fees the credit card company would receive.

As said, perhaps in 6months they will consider offering OP a card, or maybe the OPs low income will still be a problem at that time.

opinions4u

Scrootum wrote: »

Don't take it personally. Chances are that they just cannot see how they are going to make any money from your custom.

Lowest risk level of customer.

An active card repaid in full each month is more profitable than one where the debt is written off.

BMN

Could also be your age

Scrootum

Tixy wrote: »

If OP is often spending up to £2200 a month on purchases then they would likely be a considerably profitable customer with all the transactions fees the credit card company would receive.

As said, perhaps in 6months they will consider offering OP a card, or maybe the OPs low income will still be a problem at that time.

Who would be the most profitable?

A. Who is spending £2500 per month of which the bank gets around 1% £25.00

B. Who maxes out at £5000 and gets charged 2.5% (£125.00)