Declined due to Rating - Rating is 999/999

cjmillsnun

RG2015 wrote: »

Quote from the Telegraph article.

"Lenders create a secret formula based on the type of customer they want. The applicants’ details, including credit scores obtained from referencing agencies such as Experian, Equifax and Call Credit, are fed into the formula to produce a “yes” or “no”."

If lenders cannot see your credit score then this shows that the Telegraph are including lies in their article.

Not deliberate lies, but more a simple misunderstanding. It's your credit file they use not the credit score which is a number generated by an algorithm unique to each CRA. The problem is the CRAs advertise the "credit score" to draw people in. The credit scoring lenders use is different...

They use data from your credit file(s) (basically your history within the last 6 years) along with data from your application and any information that they may have about you if you have been a customer of theirs before to generate their own scoring.

RG2015

cjmillsnun wrote: »

Not deliberate lies, but more a simple misunderstanding.

Surely a journalist and his editors have a responsibility to check their facts. News media get away with sloppy reporting like this all the time.

Why would anyone want to to defend this as a simple misunderstanding?

bigadaj

Believing anything in the media, or written by a journalist is unlikely to be to anyone's benefit, certainly if it isn't corroborated elsewhere.

The whole issue around unprofitable customers seems sensible to me in theory, particularly as the merchant fees have been reduced.

However I've never seen it being applied in my experience, I've used and churned cards for over 25 years, can't recall ever paying interest, will swap for various incentives including cashback, sign up bonus, air miles etc and don't think I've ever had an application rejected.

chattychappy

RG2015 wrote: »

If lenders cannot see your credit score then this shows that the Telegraph are including lies in their article.

Experian calculates a score which they give to consumers based on what they think is typical for lenders to consider. Lenders cannot see "that" score.

As a service they can calculate bespoke scores for specific lenders, but the algorithm is tailored to them and can give a different result.

On the issue of Sainsbury, a few years back, I too had a "999" score. But on the eligibility checker, I came back as 20% on sainsbury and 100% (or near enough) for every other card. Perhaps they are "doing something different" !!

Penelopa.Pitstop

Nothing to worry about. I have excellent credit history and was declined by Sainsbury as well. Can't remember what was the reason. Applied on the same day to 3 companies, so they couldn't see searches from competition straight away. Got decent limits from two companies and took their cards. All were 0%.

chattychappy

Penelopa.Pitstop wrote: »

Nothing to worry about. I have excellent credit history and was declined by Sainsbury as well. Can't remember what was the reason. Applied on the same day to 3 companies, so they couldn't see searches from competition straight away. Got decent limits from two companies and took their cards. All were 0%.

Useful for others. I've applied for two cards on the same day and got them no problem. Incidentally, I believe that the searches DO show instantly, but not the fact of the accounts having been opened.