Dysfunctional credit reporting makes me £15

GingerBob_3

In summary - my 'financial associate' went to buy a load of furniture to the value of £1500. On offer was the typical 'take out a store card and get an extra 10% off'. Nice one. Let's take out the card, pay for the furniture on it, then bin the card. Problem - failed the credit check when attempting to open the store card. However, the nice shop assistant, on pain of losing the entire sale, gave us the 10% off anyway. This meant we could use the 1% AMEX Barclaycard for cashback. Hence the £15 that we hadn't bargained for. Good result.


Why did the credit check fail? I can't be sure, but in the last month we've opened four current accounts and had a failed opening due to Internet problems that occurred after the credit check; five hard searches!


We've never, ever, been declined credit before, so I would say it's more than a coincidence that the CRAs files about us are currently riddled with hard checks. Funny thing is, we weren't applying for credit with the current accounts. No overdrafts were requested or offered, the accounts being purely for investment.


So five credit checks carried out against us when we weren't even applying for credit could well have cost us £150. There's something wrong here.


This rogue industry that goes by the name of 'the credit reference agencies' allows its customers to carry out hard searches for non credit applications. This is another egregious aspect of the sector that I'm adding to my CRA Dysfunctional Dossier.

YorkshireBoy

Just to balance things up a little...

Almost exactly 2 years ago I embarked on an application frenzy - 18 current accounts and 5 credit cards (in that order) over a 3-4 month period. Only the last credit card application was declined...for obvious (to me at least) reasons.

Like you, no overdraft facilities were sought. The first 4 credit card limits were around £5-10K each. And I already had around 1.5 x salary in available credit and was stoozing circa 60% of my salary.

takman

'financial associate'?, I hope that doesn't mean a person who takes financial advice from you?. Considering that you happily admit you have never checked your credit report how can you possibly comment on what one contains on the CRA's procedures?.

But what really surprises me the most is that you were happy for them to hand over details such as Date of Birth to buy some furniture?. Your are usually outraged by having to provide "unnecessary" information to companies but it seems your happy to go against your own ethics for a 10% discount.
I wonder how much of a discount it would take for you to beg the CRA's for forgiveness for your points of view and announce your undying love for them, 20%... 30%???

GingerBob_3

takman wrote: »

'financial associate'?, I hope that doesn't mean a person who takes financial advice from you?. Considering that you happily admit you have never checked your credit report how can you possibly comment on what one contains on the CRA's procedures?.

But what really surprises me the most is that you were happy for them to hand over details such as Date of Birth to buy some furniture?. Your are usually outraged by having to provide "unnecessary" information to companies but it seems your happy to go against your own ethics for a 10% discount.
I wonder how much of a discount it would take for you to beg the CRA's for forgiveness for your points of view and announce your undying love for them, 20%... 30%???

Can you perhaps explain what is the purpose of the above post? I'm struggling to see anything meaningful or useful.

takman

GingerBob wrote: »

Can you perhaps explain what is the purpose of the above post? I'm struggling to see anything meaningful or useful.

I assume you must be talking about the post you made. Unfortunately only you know the purpose of that post .

GingerBob_3

takman wrote: »

I assume you must be talking about the post you made. Unfortunately only you know the purpose of that post .

You've got to admit though - there's something wrong with the system when non credit applications can affect your ability to get credit.

Ben8282

An unusual way of expressing it, but I assumed that by saying his 'financial associate' GingerBob meant his partner or perhaps a close relative who he has a financial association with.
You don't say which of you tried to take out the store card and which of you got declined.
But if you got the discount then surely the cashback would have been £13.50 not £15?
Your statement that you failed the credit check due to the opening of the current accounts and the hard searches may or may not be correct. You will never know why you failed the credit check. Store cards usually have a high APR and they are not usually too fussy about who they accept and you would not have required a massive credit limit. I have a feeling that there may be an additional factor or factors here ....

GingerBob_3

Ben8282 wrote: »

An unusual way of expressing it, but I assumed that by saying his 'financial associate' GingerBob meant his partner or perhaps a close relative who he has a financial association with.
You don't say which of you tried to take out the store card and which of you got declined.
But if you got the discount then surely the cashback would have been £13.50 not £15?
Your statement that you failed the credit check due to the opening of the current accounts and the hard searches may or may not be correct. You will never know why you failed the credit check. Store cards usually have a high APR and they are not usually too fussy about who they accept and you would not have required a massive credit limit. I have a feeling that there may be an additional factor or factors here ....

£1500 after 10% taken off (approx. figures). 'Financial Associate' - wife, who made the application. I can't think of any other reason for the decline. Like I said, neither of us has ever been declined before, including the odd store card if it came with some sort of benefit. However, five hard searches and low and behold, even the humble store card is denied. Coincidence? I wouldn't have thought so. I put it down to credit checks being carried out on non-credit applications.

System

I understood all current accounts (even without an overdraft facility) caused a hard/full credit check. This would apply even if you were only opening them for savings, I'd imagine.

ThePants999

Why would a hard credit check be needed if you're not applying for credit?

GingerBob_3

ThePants999 wrote: »

Why would a hard credit check be needed if you're not applying for credit?

Exactly the point I'm making. It isn't needed at all, but the CRAs permit it and encourage it. I put it down to malpractice. Due to the fact that the ICO hasn't stopped it they continue to get away with it, in the same way they used to blacklist addresses until they were stopped doing that.


The stock argument used to support the CRAs is that a current account could be used for an unauthorised overdraft. Balderdash! the banks could prevent that happening if someone applies for a current account without overdraft. I suspect the real reason is one of pure financial surveillance. Having current accounts reported is just a step along the road to having your entire finances reported; debts and assets, which is, of course, a long term ambition of the CRAs.