Good credit score but been turned down by lloyds

nelsbells

Hi everyone.I currently have a 0% credit card with Halifax bank.it's 0% rate is due to expire in 3 weeks so after doing some research I decided to apply for a 21 months balance transfer and 21 months 0% on purchasing.I thought it was a safe bet as I thought I had a good credit rating and the money supermarket and money saving expert website said I had a 9/10 chance of being accepted

However....I wasn't !

I have just looked up my credit score with the two credit agencies that Lloyd's use,experian and callcredit using their free trials.experian gave me a perfect score but callcredit only gave me 3 out of 5 which I found a little bit confusing.I looked at my report and I couldn't see any faults or mistakes.all bills and payments were on time,no missed payments and I'm on the electoral list.only thing I thought that might count against me was that I had only been living at my current address for 2 years and my previous address for two years whilst we saved our money for a deposit to buy our house.

Now I have a credit card with £3300 on it and I now stand to get hammered with interest in the next 3 weeks.

Does anyone have any advice for me.

One idea I had was for my girlfriend to apply for a card and transfer the balance on my card over to hers?

Thank you everyone.

[Deleted User]

Unfortunately no one sees or uses your credit scores apart from you.

What are your debts and limits? Have you only been making minimum payments? Any financial associates?

nelsbells

Me and my girlfriend share a mortgage then I got a £10,000 loan for our wedding which is paid every month by direct debit and is down to £8000.we went over budget planning our wedding so put the rest on my credit card.I've been paying the card at between 25 pounds every week.the limit on the card is £4,200 so it's not as though I've maxed out the card.problem is I can't apply for another card cos it will look as though I'm desperate for cash plus I'm not sure why I was rejected in the first place.

bigadaj

nelsbells wrote: »

Me and my girlfriend share a mortgage then I got a £10,000 loan for our wedding which is paid every month by direct debit and is down to £8000.we went over budget planning our wedding so put the rest on my credit card.I've been paying the card at between 25 pounds every week.the limit on the card is £4,200 so it's not as though I've maxed out the card.problem is I can't apply for another card cos it will look as though I'm desperate for cash plus I'm not sure why I was rejected in the first place.

How much do you earn, it could be that the debt to income ratio you have is too high.

If you've only made on application for a new card then it's probably worth making one more, two in a short space of time should be ok but I'd wait a few months to make a third.

Assuming that the revert to rate is 20% or more then it might be worth putting this credit card debt into a loan as that may limit the interest and mean that you can schedule to pay it off over a couple of years.

The other issue could be that lloyds and Halifax are part of the same banking group, so it might be better to apply to a different bank.

redpete

You've got an £8000 loan outstanding, a mortgage and you will take nearly 3 years to pay off the CC balance - maybe they think you have enough debt.

nelsbells

I earned £28,000 in my last tax year and should earn around the same by the end of this tax year.my work is seasonal so I earn more money spring/summer.when work picks up and the overtime kicks in we usually have around £1100 spare after paying the mortgage and all our other bills.my plan was to transfer the balance and pay off as much of the debt as we could before my work begins drop off in October.this will be harder to achieve if I am paying interest on the debt.I just assumed that I had a good enough credit score and it would be a formality transferring the balance to another card.

Would it be possible for my girlfriend to apply for a credit card then transfer the balance to that?she has no debt apart from a m&s credit that she uses to buy groceries then always pays the total off at the end of the month...without fail!

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

agrinnall

nelsbells wrote: »

I just assumed that I had a good enough credit score

Your credit score is a meaningless number that no lender will see or have any interest in - what they are interested in is your credit record, your current borrowing, your income, and your ability to pay. In your case several of those are probably giving them cause to refuse a loan - I suspect that the seasonal earnings is one issue, as there's no guarantee that you will earn the same this year as you did last year.

nelsbells

I never realized lenders could see how much money I was being paid every week.

Typhoon2000

They can't, they rely on what you tell them and then compare it what you have declared in previous credit applications to see if there are any discrepancies.
Still, it looks like you can pay off your credit card in 3 months form earning, so no point is getting another card.

nelsbells

It's not the end of the world.just trying to avoid paying the interest.plus I could get rid of the debt over a more comfortable period of time(say 6 months instead of 3).the worst part is wondering why my application was declined.I'd love to know why,just for future reference.it's a shame they don't tell you why.

Can anyone answer my question regarding swapping my debt to my girlfriends card?

redpete

nelsbells wrote: »

Can anyone answer my question regarding swapping my debt to my girlfriends card?

Yes you can, assuming her numbers are sufficiently good for her to get a 0% offer with a high enough limit.