Declined for Norwich & Peterborough Gold Classic. What's next?

ChrisNY_2

Hi there.

I have been living in The UK for the last 12 months.
Im EU citizen living with my girlfriend in London and i am currently employed out of the UK but i have the option and work remotely. I am not looking for a job in the UK for the moment but i am a resident (so i guess i am considered as unemployed)

I opened a full current account with TSB when arrived in the UK for my daily banking which updated to plus after few months and got the benefit of the big interest.
Recently I also opened a full current account with Barclays in order to open a savings account in euro which is the currency i am paid in order to avoid FX fees.

I made an application online to open a Gold Classic current account with Norwich & Peterborough in order to take advantage of the benefits of the free oversea usage of the debit card provided since i don't have such a privilege with TSB or Barclays but declined.

I called them back and they informed me that there is no problem with my credit file but they denied cause there are little data for me since i have arrived in the UK before 12 months and also that this account comes with an overdraft they cannot offer to me for now. They offered to open a gold start account which has no benefits or to apply in 6 months but i declined.

I visited a nationwide brunch and asked for the flex plus account and they informed me that i am eligible to open it with my current credit score. They also offered me an overdraft of 100 pounds.


So what's the problem with Norwich & Peterborough?

I wanted to have a debit card or credit card with zero fees to use worldwide and i thought that this current account would be the solution in my case.

What are your suggestions?

Should i apply for a credit card in order to build my credit score and show more data in my file?

Facts :

1. The documents i can provide are UK driver license , EU passport and bank statements from TSB and Barclays.

2. Annual income is 22.000 EURO for the moment but in the UK i am unemployed.

3. Need to have fee free credit or debit card since i travel a lot. I am also thinking the flex plus for the good insurance package.

4. Have credit cards in another EU country and never had a default.

5. Within the last 12 months i never used the overdraft offered from TSB so by account's balance was always positive.


Thank you in advance.

alanq

As you are in London Metro Bank may be worth a try. It offers fee-free debit card usage but only in Europe. Unless things have changed recently you have to visit a branch to apply for your first account.

You have to pay a monthly fee for a Flex Plus account so there would be something in it for Nationwide. Perhaps N&P (and Metro Bank?) may judge that you only want the account for the benefits while you do your main banking elsewhere so they have nothing to gain from doing business with you.

grumbler

ChrisNY wrote: »

...
Recently I also opened a full current account with Barclays in order to open a savings account in euro which is the currency i am paid in order to avoid FX fees.

How does this help to avoid the fees if you cannot use this money for spending and any transfer from this account costs you?

I made an application online to open a Gold Classic current account with Norwich & Peterborough in order to take advantage of the benefits of the free oversea usage of the debit card

Again, your income is in €. What's the point in converting € to £ (not for free) and then taking advantage of free conversion back from £ to €?

I don't see how all these arrangements are better than having a € account with a debit card in your country.

Then you can transfer part of this money to a UK £ account with very small loss: https://www.fxcompared.com/money-transfer/France-UK?amount=1000&ref=filter

Then you can use a no-fee UK card for spending overseas when/if you can get it.

ChrisNY_2

alanq wrote: »

As you are in London Metro Bank may be worth a try. It offers fee-free debit card usage but only in Europe. Unless things have changed recently you have to visit a branch to apply for your first account.

You have to pay a monthly fee for a Flex Plus account so there would be something in it for Nationwide. Perhaps N&P (and Metro Bank?) may judge that you only want the account for the benefits while you do your main banking elsewhere so they have nothing to gain from doing business with you.

We are talking about current accounts and not for credit cards so actually the banks should have no reason to close the door to a new customer... As i said they offered my an account , but was the start one..

There are stories here with people having more than 10 or 20 current accounts thus i believe that my problem is the little data in my credit score file.

In any case i closed a year in the UK thus i should start working with my credit score.

So what do you suggest?
Should i apply for any of the bad credit cards?
Is this going to improve my credit score rapidly?

I don't need any mortgage and i can pay my credit cards fully since i only use them in order to keep my money safe and to get the benefits offered thus i know that i am going to be a good and safe customer for a bank.

The only problem is to make a start as i did last year with TSB.

I have visited Metro bank and i don't like their business approach. They were so pushy to make a switch when visited them and i just said no. Furthermore i also travel to USA thus their card won't feel 100% to my needs.

The best option for me it would be to build some credit score in the next few months in order to open the account with Norwich & Peterborough and also to start having chances to be accepted for better credit cards.

Thanks.

MrSilk

Surely when applying for bank accounts they ask for income etc.. If you're salary is being paid into the accounts in questions then I would have thought you'd have to state this in the application process, why else would you need so many accounts, unless you're claiming benefits in the UK?

ChrisNY_2

grumbler wrote: »

How does this help to avoid the fees if you cannot use this money for spending and any transfer from this account costs you?
Again, your income is in €. What's the point in converting € to £ (not for free) and then taking advantage of free conversion back from £ to €?

I don't see how all these arrangements are better than having a € account with a debit card in your country.

Then you can transfer part of this money to a UK £ account with very small loss: https://www.fxcompared.com/money-transfer/France-UK?amount=1000&ref=filter

Then you can use a no-fee UK card for spending overseas when/if you can get it.

Thank you very much for your reply.
I never said that i transfer all my money to UK every month.

I convert some of my income from EURO to GBP when needed using the transferwise service which is the leading service in the market for me thus conversion fee is minimum (only 0.5% from the real time price).

Since my daily life is in the UK my expenses are getting bigger here compared to my expenses in my origin EU country. Thus i need more banking products from time to time.

You mentioned the charges for the Barclays EURO account but i didn't have any EURO account at all in the UK and the options to have a EURO bank account for free are getting fewer. Citiplus Gold account (25GBP per month) is far better but i don't want to pay such. Sometimes i end up with cash in EURO so i want to be able to make a deposit to my local branch without needing to make any conversions. Furthermore if i see that Barclays won't fit to my needs , i will check for alternatives. It was an account offered for free and there is no monthly cost...

So i guess that everything is clear.

The point is how to get the fee free credit - debit card and how to improve my credit score for future products since i have been declined for the moment from Norwich & Peterborough

ChrisNY_2

MrSilk wrote: »

Surely when applying for bank accounts they ask for income etc.. If you're salary is being paid into the accounts in questions then I would have thought you'd have to state this in the application process, why else would you need so many accounts, unless you're claiming benefits in the UK?

If by "benefits in the UK" you mean high interest , cheap insurance , fee free transactions abroad , switch benefits , etc then you are right.
I am "claiming" for the such benefits in all the countries i have lived since I am not willing to give my money to the banks for free..

grumbler

ChrisNY wrote: »

You mentioned the charges for the Barclays EURO account but i didn't have any EURO account at all in the UK

You mentioned some "savings account in euro", didn't you?

and the options to have a EURO bank account for free are getting fewer.

Yes, that's why I suggested having/keeping a € account in your country.

The point is how to get the fee free credit - debit card and how to improve my credit score for future products since i have been declined for the moment from Norwich & Peterborough

You intention to 'build' the history was right.
So far you have two current accounts contributing to it.
A mobile phone contract (sim-only possibly), a store card are easy to get and will be reported to CRA(s) too. So will a subprime CC if you can get it. Try Aqua Rewards that pays 0.5% cashback.

Voyager2002

Firstly, each bank makes its own decisions about which customers it will or will not accept. You don't have a right to any products; they will not explain their reasons for declining; there are no hard and fast rules. Your problem with N and P might not have been about credit scoring, but simply that you do not look like the kind of customer that they expect to be profitable for them. The best advice is to do as they suggested; open some kind of account with them and pay in a bit of money each month.

Secondly, you are not unemployed in the UK and should not describe yourself in this way: that will not help your applications at all. Rather, you do need to establish some kind of history of handling credit responsibly. Rather than going to the 'poor-credit' lenders, approach the TSB since they already know you and see if they can offer you a credit card.

Thirdly, the Barclays Euro account would not be much use to you (and nor would the Citibank one). Neither allow you to pay in cash Euro in a branch. A Euro account in your home country (or elsewhere in the Euro zone) would work just as well for you.

I agree that the N and P account is good, but you should be aware that it does not support faster payments. So the requirement to pay in five hundred pounds each month (and then move it out to an interest-paying account) is a nuisance, and perhaps this account is more trouble than it is worth.

alanq

ChrisNY wrote: »

We are talking about current accounts and not for credit cards so actually the banks should have no reason to close the door to a new customer... As i said they offered my an account , but was the start one.

The "free" services that a bank provides are a cost to the bank. It will aim to gain at least that much from you in the future one way or another. You were offered an account with lower benefits PERHAPS in part because N&P judged it had more to lose than gain if it offered you the account that you wanted.

With credit cards a bank gets commission on sales/cash withdrawals. With debit cards it gets very little (nothing?) on sales and has to pay a fee to other ATM operators for each cash withdrawal.

ChrisNY wrote: »

I have visited Metro bank and i don't like their business approach. They were so pushy to make a switch when visited them and i just said no.

There are things about Metro Bank that are not to my liking but when I applied for a current account the subject of transferring accounts that I had with other banks was not even mentioned. Perhaps this was because things have changed in the past couple of years, perhaps a different branch policy or perhaps because I already had savings accounts with it and so it knew that it was worth having me as a customer.

If I had encountered over-pushiness I too would have refused to open a Metro Bank current account and it would have lost my current and future savings.

ChrisNY_2

grumbler wrote: »

You mentioned some "savings account in euro", didn't you?
Yes, that's why I suggested having/keeping a € account in your country.

You intention to 'build' the history was right.
So far you have two current accounts contributing to it.
A mobile phone contract (sim-only possibly), a store card are easy to get and will be reported to CRA(s) too. So will a subprime CC if you can get it. Try Aqua Rewards that pays 0.5% cashback.

Thank you.
Maybe my average english is the problem for the confusion about the EURO account with Barclays.

I tried the credit card eligibility checker and it says that i have 50% for capital one cards , 0% for Aqua and 0% for Barclays initial.

Is this accurate or should i follow your suggestion?
I thought that the Barclays initial would be the easiest one in my case but i guess it is not!

Waiting for your comments.