New account and credit rating.

Grahamthesaver

Hello everybody,
I am in need of a little advice if that's possible?
I switched banks at the end of 2014 and was told there would be the usual checks etc.
The switch went fine and all was dandy until October 2015 when I came to take out a loan with the bank I switched to santander.
My credit rating has always been excellent so I presumed I would qualify for the 4.5% loan.
Now my application was successful but they said due to my credit score the rate would now be 14.5%. So I checked on expedia credit score and the thing that affected my rating was switching bank accounts. And at no point when switching was I told that it would affect my rating!
I have tried to argue the point with customer services,but they said they didn't know it would affect it....surely it's their job to know isn't it?
Anyway long story short,I'm considering emailing head office,is it worth it?
Many thanks.

[Deleted User]

No. Your Experian credit score and the score that the bank are talking about are two entirely different things.

The Experian score is irrelevant.

Your bank has gauged you to be higher risk against their own criteria.

Grahamthesaver

Ok thanks for the reply. So the credit score company's are just a rip off then?
As that was the only thing going against me on it.

Candyapple

There's no such thing as a credit score - they only sell it to you as a marketing tool, a way of extracting money out of you for a fictitious number that the only person who will see it is you - no lender sees it and it is meaningless.

Also, one credit search in 2014 will definitely not be the reason you were rejected. You might have failed on affordability, debt to credit ratio too high, not on electoral roll for long enough, salary not enough etc.

Grahamthesaver

I wasn't rejected. They just upped the rate. Glad I only used the free month with that company. Only thing I owe is my mortgage have no money on cards ect. Never missed a payment ever in my life. They said they would review the rate in may so fingers crossed.

MaebyJade

It's not always particularly because you don't have any adverse credit history, sometimes lenders are hesitant because you don't enough of a credit history. If there's little history of credit and payment then there isn't a pattern showing how you deal with credit which some lenders deem a risk. Sounds weird but that's how it is!

PaulW922

Credit Scores from the likes of Experian are not quite a 'rip off'. They are a guide produced by the credit agency for you and for you alone. Unfortunately people see them and think this is their 'official score'. So as long as you understand what the score represents it is of some value I guess, but it is not much use in predicting whether you will get a financial product or not - which is probably what most people look for in the first place!