Natwest soft search dilemma

camaj

Short version: The other day I logged into my Natwest account and saw a message that read "You have a good chance of being
accepted for a Reward credit card with a limit of £1,200.". Which is fortunate because I've been looking to get a credit card recently to rebuild my credit and this card had a horrible rate so perhaps they're not too fussy on who they accept?

I noticed that they said elsewhere that you'd need an income of £10k+ but I went ahead anyway since it was a soft search and presumably NW could see my financial situation pretty well. They ask you to enter your annual income before overtime and bonuses, which I did and I believe it said I had a 95% chance of being accepted but it asked me to check a few things before continuing, the most pertinent being an income over £10k.

So what should I do? It seems odd that they didn't reject me when I mentioned I had an income lower than their threshold but I don't know if I should do the full application given that I don't meet their criteria (although I would if they included overtime)

Long version:
When MSE launched their credit checker I decided to try it, unfortunately it didn't work for me for some reason, perhaps it's because I'd been off the electoral roll for a while, and haven't lived at my current address for more than 6 years. So I did the experian version and got high scores on some of the credit rebuilder cards. I got cold feet but the natwest advert/message intrigued me given that my bank is able to see far more of my financial history than any lender.

On top of that, there was an advert on Amazon offering a £20 gift card for signing up for a card with Aqua, which would obviously be even better, financially.

onthefencepost

I had a 7/10 acceptance with Natwest applied got declined. Appealed and led to nothing.

Ben8282

camaj wrote: »

Short version: The other day I logged into my Natwest account and saw a message that read "You have a good chance of being
accepted for a Reward credit card with a limit of £1,200.".

Are you sure? Strange message to be getting when logging on to Natwest internet banking.

[Deleted User]

camaj wrote: »

Short version: The other day I logged into my Natwest account and saw a message that read "You have a good chance of being
accepted for a Reward credit card with a limit of £1,200.". Which is fortunate because I've been looking to get a credit card recently to rebuild my credit and this card had a horrible rate so perhaps they're not too fussy on who they accept?

I noticed that they said elsewhere that you'd need an income of £10k+ but I went ahead anyway since it was a soft search and presumably NW could see my financial situation pretty well. They ask you to enter your annual income before overtime and bonuses, which I did and I believe it said I had a 95% chance of being accepted but it asked me to check a few things before continuing, the most pertinent being an income over £10k.

So what should I do? It seems odd that they didn't reject me when I mentioned I had an income lower than their threshold but I don't know if I should do the full application given that I don't meet their criteria (although I would if they included overtime)

Long version:
When MSE launched their credit checker I decided to try it, unfortunately it didn't work for me for some reason, perhaps it's because I'd been off the electoral roll for a while, and haven't lived at my current address for more than 6 years. So I did the experian version and got high scores on some of the credit rebuilder cards. I got cold feet but the natwest advert/message intrigued me given that my bank is able to see far more of my financial history than any lender.

On top of that, there was an advert on Amazon offering a £20 gift card for signing up for a card with Aqua, which would obviously be even better, financially.

Your short version is longer than the long version.

And also about something entirely different.

camaj

Deleted_User wrote: »

And also about something entirely different.

Not really. The short version refers to this specific incident but it's part of a bigger question.

camaj

Ben8282 wrote: »

Are you sure? Strange message to be getting when logging on to Natwest internet banking.

It's the first time I've seen it but I don't think it's that strange, after all they want to sell you more products.

CtrlAltDelboy

camaj wrote: »

It seems odd that they didn't reject me when I mentioned I had an income lower than their threshold but I don't know if I should do the full application given that I don't meet their criteria

If you don't meet the criteria for the credit card, then don't apply for it as there's very little change of being accepted. What is the draw to this specific card? Get a card-building card that doesn't have a minimum annual income set (or one that is lower than £10k in your case). The Aqua one you mentioned with the £25 Amazon voucher may work better for you - just check the eligibility criteria first.

Otherwise, just get a normal credit-builder CC and pay in full every month until your credit limit is increased and your score improves...THEN you can apply for better Reward type cards.

camaj

CtrlAltDelboy wrote: »

If you don't meet the criteria for the credit card, then don't apply for it as there's very little change of being accepted. What is the draw to this specific card?

As I say, I interpret their offer as an indication that I meet some of their criteria since they can see my financial situation better than a credit card company. I don't meet their criteria yet they didn't reject me on the first stage which is odd if they were going to do so on the basis of income.

I'm a little hesitant to apply for some of these credit-builder type cards, it seems like they treat their customers poorly, I filled out the application for one, but didn't actually send it and I got cold-calls for days from numbers all over the country

[Deleted User]

camaj wrote: »

I'm a little hesitant to apply for some of these credit-builder type cards, it seems like they treat their customers poorly,

They treat them no differently, in general, to any other cards. It's more customer understanding which is the issue.

camaj

Deleted_User wrote: »

They treat them no differently, in general, to any other cards. It's more customer understanding which is the issue.

Sounds like they flog your details to anyone willing to pay, god knows who they gave my number to and I wasn't even a customer!

camaj

Just an update: Maybe my theory was correct because I've been accepted! Not only that but APR is 21% which is lower than the APR of the credit builder cards.

I don't know if being an existing customer helped but it might be worth trying if you're close to the income floor.