Credit card declined-irony at its best

jamier236

Good morning all,

My apologies if this is a worn record but I'm hoping somebody can offer some guidance.

I'm looking to buy a house in the near future so in an attempt to improve my credit score (it was a 'fair/good' score) I applied for an Asda credit card. I did the usual pre-lim checks and all was good! But after the automatic search I was declined, which has dented my credit score. (Ironic I know).

Asda refuse to explain why I was declined but I contacted Equifax and found that I wasn't listed as being on the Electoral Register. I only applied to be on the Electoral Register two weeks before applying for the credit card, I'm new to this and didn't realise it can take 4-6 weeks or longer because I may have applied during the annual canvass.

What can I do to help my credit score? The information displayed on my credit report is wrong but Equifax aren't willing to chase up my Electoral Register status, instead just wait for the update from the council.

Is there anything I can do? Seems like I'm being penalised for their slow system.

Is it also better to just forget the credit card idea and take the hit? I don't need the credit card.

Thank you for any help!

[Deleted User]

Ignore your score.

Contact your council and find out when they send updates. Ask if a manual update can be given. Then try Experian again- they sometime accept evidence of ER registration if pushed.

Lrimas

Don't worry too much about the rejection. The credit agencies can't see that you were rejected, just that there was a credit search against your name. A lot of credit searches in a short time is a bad thing, but one shouldn't hurt too much.

Wait until you are on the electoral roll and then use the tool here at mse to see your chance of being accepted: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/creditclub

You can also check that now for some "credit building" credit cards. These are credit cards that will accept people with a bad credit rating but has very high interest. As long as you pay it in full every month it shouldn't matter.

Plutonomics

One search shouldn't hurt as Lrimas said, just give it a month or so to get on the register (and give time between searches) then try again.

Ben8282

How can you know that your credit score has been 'dented' if you had to call Equifax to find out you were not on the electoral roll? (which is the most likely reason for the decline).

jamier236

Thank you for the replies everyone! Definitely put my worries to rest.

Ignore your score.

Contact your council and find out when they send updates. Ask if a manual update can be given. Then try Experian again- they sometime accept evidence of ER registration if pushed.

Thanks zx81! I didn't realise a manual update was an option, I'll chase them up first thing tomorrow.

Ben8282

How can you know that your credit score has been 'dented' if you had to call Equifax to find out you were not on the electoral roll? (which is the most likely reason for the decline).

I signed up to Equifax almost straight away and saw my score, then the next time I checked 5 days later it had dropped by 38 points. I don't know for certain but I had assumed that this search affected my score. Nothing else had changed.

sourcrates

jamier236 wrote: »

Thank you for the replies everyone! Definitely put my worries to rest.

I signed up to Equifax almost straight away and saw my score, then the next time I checked 5 days later it had dropped by 38 points. I don't know for certain but I had assumed that this search affected my score. Nothing else had changed.

Hi,


The thing you have to realise is that your credit score is made up by the CRA`s, no lender ever sees that score, get the electoral role issue sorted, then check your file and make sure all other info is correct.


Look on Noddle, that's free to use, and by far the most widely used CRA.


But if you don't really need the card, they why get yourself into debt ?

shortcrust

Four to six weeks seems very reasonable to me. Did you really expect it to be showing after two weeks? If so I guess you've not had many dealings with local government.:)

m4rc

It can take months to show up, and that's if the address is formatted correctly - if not it will showman but won't be applied to current address.

Contact your district council and very nicely ask them for confirmation in writing. They may email you a letter, but they absolutely don't have to. The CRAs also don't have to chase the councils, this really isn't how it works I'm afraid. The councils update and periodically the files get updated with the CRAs.

If they will send you a letter you can forward it to Equifax, but you also need to send it to Callcredit and Experian. Experian asked me for a paper letter scanned and emailed, not just an email. I did try to explain that it's easier to fake a letter than an electronic document but they were having none of it, fortunately the head of service in my local district council was very obliging and sent me a letter out.

Try it, but don't be surprised if you get told to wait it out.