Refused student account

Tazadoobii

I now have just over a years worth of borrowing history, my limit across 3 credit cards and 2 current accounts is £2500.

I've been close to maxing out my limit, when it was £500, as I tended to spend on credit rather than using my current account, although I use moneydashboard to make sure I'm covered for the balance.

I applied for the santander account and was rejected.

With so much credit available to me, are they simply not interested? Do banks work on the same monthly basis, whereby you can't view a new score until the next month, so they will still see my score from when I had a lower limit, (my credit has gone up £1900 this month).

I'm annoyed because I have some credit history, never been over my limit, always paid back in full, which is more than most students have.

Any ideas what the deal might be?

mwarby

I'd think as a student they are expecting you to have minimal income. I recall when I had a student account, enabling the overdraft required extra steps as the normal criteria wouldn't have allowed me one.

I think this, minimal income and credit elsewhere makes them nervous

Your limits going up,may have opposite effect to what you think, if they are concerned about total debt\limit(potential debt) to income

pinkdalek

mwarby wrote: »

I'd think as a student they are expecting you to have minimal income. I recall when I had a student account, enabling the overdraft required extra steps as the normal criteria wouldn't have allowed me one.

I think this, minimal income and credit elsewhere makes them nervous

Your limits going up,may have opposite effect to what you think, if they are concerned about total debt\limit(potential debt) to income

Agreed. Santander will take into account the credit you already have and as a responsible lender, taking into account you are a student would not want to over commit you.
You may be respsonsible with your debts and show that you pay them off, but any responsible lender should only lend within the boundaries of a person's income and existing commitments.

Tazadoobii

pinkdalek wrote: »

Agreed. Santander will take into account the credit you already have and as a responsible lender, taking into account you are a student would not want to over commit you.
You may be respsonsible with your debts and show that you pay them off, but any responsible lender should only lend within the boundaries of a person's income and existing commitments.

Does this mean then, by trying to build my credit history, I've actually caused a negative?

JuicyJesus

Tazadoobii wrote: »

Does this mean then, by trying to build my credit history, I've actually caused a negative?

£2500 of available credit with no income across five lenders means that basically you could go on a spending spree and immediately put yourself into immense financial difficulty. It certainly won't encourage anyone to give you any more credit, even with a student account.

You will unfortunately have diminishing returns trying to "build credit" by having so many accounts. A single credit card you buy a sandwich on each month and repay in full looks better than three of them plus two current accounts and no income.