Have cash - no credit

akzyms

Here's a good one. I have cash, but no credit score. I have just come back to UK after 13 years in Australia and having sold a house over there I have cash in the bank.
I kept a current account and I have most of the money in there.
Problem is that I do not have any kind of credit score here. We've been back for 5 weeks and are staying with friends.
I tried to open a Santander123 account, but they would not accept me due to my credit score - despite the fact i have cash that I want to give to them rather than borrowing anything from them.
The other problem is that despite having a significant amount of cash in the bank, noone will give me a credit card.
Is there a company out there that will look at the whole picture rather than just credit scores?
All I seem to be getting in "Compu'er says no" from everywhere and it's getting a bit boring now.
Are there any sensible banks out there?

TIA

20aday

Hello there.

One thing I'm keen to stress is your "credit score". It's a meaningless number generated by the credit agencies to earn revenue from products tailored to your profile (i.e. a "poor score" would mean you'd be offered "sub-prime credit cards" etc).

Is your current account with an Australian bank? And whilst you are currently living with friends what's the short term goal in terms of living somewhere?

You might find registering for the Electoral Roll (and giving it time to update) will help in terms of opening a "Basic Bank Account" running that for six months/twelve months and then applying for a 'proper' Current Account.

DCFC79

Is a credit really needed ?

akzyms

DCFC79 wrote: »

Is a credit really needed ?

That's what I said when Santander turned me down for a 123 current account. They said that my credit rating was too low.

akzyms

20aday wrote: »

Hello there.

One thing I'm keen to stress is your "credit score". It's a meaningless number generated by the credit agencies to earn revenue from products tailored to your profile (i.e. a "poor score" would mean you'd be offered "sub-prime credit cards" etc).

Is your current account with an Australian bank? And whilst you are currently living with friends what's the short term goal in terms of living somewhere?

You might find registering for the Electoral Roll (and giving it time to update) will help in terms of opening a "Basic Bank Account" running that for six months/twelve months and then applying for a 'proper' Current Account.

I have a current account here - kept it while we were away and have always had cash in there.

Thanks for the advice on Electoral Roll - will look into that.

cheers,

akzyms

20aday wrote: »

... It's a meaningless number generated by the credit agencies to earn revenue from products tailored to your profile (i.e. a "poor score" would mean you'd be offered "sub-prime credit cards" etc)....

I can't even get a "sub-prime credit cards". I don't care if they charge me 50% interest. Not planning to use it as a loan - just for convenience..... :mad:

xfoxuk

You need to build up history in the UK, as you could run off back to Auz with their money. Think about it from the bank's point of view.

Superscrooge

akzyms wrote: »

I can't even get a "sub-prime credit cards". I don't care if they charge me 50% interest. Not planning to use it as a loan - just for convenience..... :mad:

If you only want the credit card for convenience rather than credit, could you not just use a debit card?

akzyms

Superscrooge wrote: »

If you only want the credit card for convenience rather than credit, could you not just use a debit card?

A debit card has lower daily limits than a credit card.
Also I'd rather earn the measly 0.65% on my money for an extra month before paying off the balance.

akzyms

xfoxuk wrote: »

You need to build up history in the UK, as you could run off back to Auz with their money. Think about it from the bank's point of view.

Could be true if I was asking to borrow huge amounts, but how is this relevant for opening a current account?

akzyms

So back to my original question...
Are there any banks out there that will look at the whole picture and use a bit of discretion and common sense, rather than just using credit scores or is it simply a case of "Compu'er says no" and that's that?