Overseas Voter

amyanne

I own my own house in the UK and have been enrolled as an overseas voter on the Electoral Register since 2015 and the Council has confirmed that this is still current. I currently live in France, but plan to return to the UK before the end of this year. Moving house is expensive so I asked my bank if I could increase my credit card limit. This was rejected. I use ClearScore to check my credit rating and their report said I had only one negative - that I was not on the Electoral Roll. I've emailed the Council but obviously won't get a reply for a couple of days. I'll also contact Experian. However, I thought I'd ask if any of you knows if being an overseas voter counts against your credit rating.

[Deleted User]

Not being on the ER will concern some lenders.

Chappaz

amyanne wrote: »

I own my own house in the UK and have been enrolled as an overseas voter on the Electoral Register since 2015 and the Council has confirmed that this is still current. I currently live in France, but plan to return to the UK before the end of this year. Moving house is expensive so I asked my bank if I could increase my credit card limit. This was rejected. I use ClearScore to check my credit rating and their report said I had only one negative - that I was not on the Electoral Roll. I've emailed the Council but obviously won't get a reply for a couple of days. I'll also contact Experian. However, I thought I'd ask if any of you knows if being an overseas voter counts against your credit rating.

You must be careful, as many (if not most) lenders require customers to be UK resident. If they (i.e. bank account and card providers) find out that you aren't, it may cause issues.

Some may turn a blind eye if you're making them money and have a UK address, but it's not guaranteed.

Superscrooge

It's more difficult for a CC provider to recover debts from someone living abroad. So I would expect a foreign address to be regarded as a negative and make lenders more wary of increasing your credit limit

DCFC79

Maybe it would affect your credit rating but its only something you yourself can see. Your credit history is whats important.

PixelPound

People overseas are marked differently on the electoral register, as they can't vote in local elections. I'm not sure if this is recorded differently by the CRA's. It might not be this that gave you a rejection though as it wasn't new credit just a limit increase. It could be affordability.

amyanne

Thank you to everyone who has replied. My bank know I live overseas and that I own my UK house which is the address they have for me. I've never given them my French address as they've never needed it. I can't get hold of Experian as the only phone number/email they have on their site is for their CreditExpert members. I don't want to join CreditExpert - and am not convinced they would be able to help me there anyway. I have used my bank's credit card in the past, haven't missed payments etc and in fact have a small loan now which I have pretty well cleared.Not sure how to find out from Experian what the actual problem is. If any of you have any ideas I'd love to hear them. Meanwhile it looks as though the only thing I can do is wait to hear from the Council.