how good are the soft searches - in your opinion?

b-man

Hi all,

i was bankrupt 6 years ago. Recently everything fell off my file and I now just have two non-credit bank accounts showing 6 years of perfect behaviour and a sim only phone contract for the last 3 years (weirdly enough this only shows on Equifax report and not experian). I've paid water, gas, council tax, sky, car insurance etc for the last year without any issues.

I'm doing some soft searches and they are coming up quite different results. The experian one seems to think I am eligible for more cards than the money saving one. There seems to be some 95% chance ratings on some of the balance transfer cards that are showing on the MoneySavingExpert soft search, but these are all with MBNA and Barclaycard, both of which I had defaults with when I went bankrupt. Surely they still have these records and will be able to see that I cost them lots of money in the past. Does this mean that I should avoid applying for them, or is that now too long ago?

interested in peoples thoughts and any advice gladly appreciated,

Best wishes,

Bman

jckh14

b-man wrote: »

Hi all,

i was bankrupt 6 years ago. Recently everything fell off my file and I now just have two non-credit bank accounts showing 6 years of perfect behaviour and a sim only phone contract for the last 3 years (weirdly enough this only shows on Equifax report and not experian). I've paid water, gas, council tax, sky, car insurance etc for the last year without any issues.

I'm doing some soft searches and they are coming up quite different results. The experian one seems to think I am eligible for more cards than the money saving one. There seems to be some 95% chance ratings on some of the balance transfer cards that are showing on the MoneySavingExpert soft search, but these are all with MBNA and Barclaycard, both of which I had defaults with when I went bankrupt. Surely they still have these records and will be able to see that I cost them lots of money in the past. Does this mean that I should avoid applying for them, or is that now too long ago?

interested in peoples thoughts and any advice gladly appreciated,

Best wishes,

Bman

I've tried many soft search checkers in the past and they vary quite a bit. Sometime the soft searches comes back with a really low chance and I've been accepted then sometime it show a really high chance of acceptance then I've been declined.

Have you checked the soft search eligibility checker with Barclaycard and MBNA to see see what they come back with, this might be a little more accurate as they will search your internal score through past records from your past credit agreements.

a&akay

Definitely a lottery. With £50k in our joint stooze pot, having our main bank account with Barclays for 30 years and 2 current stoozed cards with them at £11k of current taken credit they offered me another online. The soft search showed only a 3 month offer rather than the 36 month one I was after. On the other hand, yesterday I received an MBNA offer of an increase to £18.6k from the current £13.6k saying I was a good risk. I've only been paying off the minimums plus a small bit for many months now. I rejected that offer online and asked to be offered no future ones. Both Noddles are 3/5 which I also think is a fair reflection.

b-man

Tried the soft search for barclaycard and they said I was eligable. Tried the real application and got rejected. I guess they havent forgotten me just yet!!

Got a capitalOne Platinum card approved. Will use that for now and rebuild some credit usage and maybe try again next year or maybe just give barclaycard and MBNA a wide berth for life.

Flish

b-man wrote: »

Tried the soft search for barclaycard and they said I was eligable. Tried the real application and got rejected. I guess they havent forgotten me just yet!!

Don't think Barclaycard are forgiving, seen this before with messages about 'past account conduct' or similar, soft search won't know this

Round_The_Bend

Flish wrote: »

Don't think Barclaycard are forgiving, seen this before with messages about 'past account conduct' or similar, soft search won't know this

I owed money to Barclaycard but was recently able to obtain a new card with them, after the six years, so it is possible.

In fact, I am amazed at how many providers seem happy to offer me a card, despite my previous history. American Express didn't though, citing the fact that they were one of my creditors. Interestingly, Lloyds, with whom I do my main banking, to whom I have never owed money and with whom I have fairly significant cash savings, still rejected my recent credit card application.

Thrugelmir

b-man wrote: »

Surely they still have these records and will be able to see that I cost them lots of money in the past. Does this mean that I should avoid applying for them, or is that now too long ago?

Advisable to try other finance houses first. As Companies do retain lists of delinquent customers. In addition your records are still visible on the London Gazette. So not wiped totally.

redux

I don't rate the MSE pre-checker at all.

andyfromotley

i watched as my eligibility for the clarity card went up as i paid of my debt, when it got to 90% i applied and was accepted. So for me, in that instance it was helpful.

theburningcat

I tried the MSE tool some time ago, it thought my credit rating was terrible (no idea why this could be). I applied for a decent card anyway and it was instantly approved.

Spooky_Gal

Tried the MSE eligibility calculator this morning and got 90% on the Halifax 0% 35 months card, but was rejected when I did the full application.