Rejected for phone/credit card

pierre1

Hi,

Some advice please!

I am a young professional who has never had a credit card. I have no debt other than my car loan (organised with RBS and paid regularly and on time). I have almost saved enough up for a decent house deposit. I am on the electoral roll where i live.

I performed an online credit assessment from checkmyfile.com and there is nothing in it that is negative other than 2 prior 'initial credit searches' which I presume are from my recent attempts to apply for credit cards online.

As a student (5 years ago) I failed to pay some mobile phone bills on time to vodafone but subsequently I have had no financial problems at all.

I have recently tried to apply for both mobile phone contracts and credit cards (including the Vanquish with insanely high interest rate) and been rejected.

Not sure how to proceed. If i am unable to successfully obtain the shittest credit card and build a credit history i am worried I wont be able to get a mortgage.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Pierre.

CLAPTON

get full copies of all three of your credit files

ask your bank for a CC and use it each month and pay the full amount on time.

SGE1

Pierre,

I am in the same predicament.

I've just left higher education, have a full time job, pay all my bills on time and in full, etc, but have never had a credit card. I only once exceeded my overdraft limit, about 3 years ago, for a day, which I can't imagine would rule me out forever.

I applied for a similarly !!!!!! credit card with a disgustingly high interest rate (Barclays Initial), which I understood was specifically for those without any credit history, or with a very bad credit history, and still got rejected.

I wrote to them, asking why (they're legally obliged to tell you) but have not heard back from them (yet, I hope).

I also used checkmyfile, and discovered my 3 credit scores were completely rubbish (two 1 stars and one 2 stars), but I'm hoping this is just because my council haven't yet updated the electoral register, and that once this is done, my score will improve.

From checkmyfile, it seems that 2 prior initial credit searches is too low (I also only have 2, according to Equifax, and none, according to the other two agencies). So that seems to indicate that applying for credit, and increasing credit searches, is the way to go, ironically, even if you get rejected. I also 'only' have 2 active credit accounts, and apparently this is low and puts people off - so again, apparently, the more accounts you have the better.

This is all quite confusing to me. Since you have a loan, this in fact should stand you in good stead if you are repaying it in full and on time, as this indicates that you're willing to borrow and repay with interest in a predictable and reliable way.

I was thinking of buying the checkmyfile monitoring service next month, once the electoral roll is updated, to see if this affects my scores.

Good luck though, in this vicious catch 22 circle of credit whereby you need a credit card to build your credit history but can't get one because you've got no credit history...

CLAPTON

SGE1 wrote: »

Pierre,

I am in the same predicament.

I've just left higher education, have a full time job, pay all my bills on time and in full, etc, but have never had a credit card. I only once exceeded my overdraft limit, about 3 years ago, for a day, which I can't imagine would rule me out forever.

I applied for a similarly !!!!!! credit card with a disgustingly high interest rate (Barclays Initial), which I understood was specifically for those without any credit history, or with a very bad credit history, and still got rejected.

I wrote to them, asking why (they're legally obliged to tell you) but have not heard back from them (yet, I hope).

I also used checkmyfile, and discovered my 3 credit scores were completely rubbish (two 1 stars and one 2 stars), but I'm hoping this is just because my council haven't yet updated the electoral register, and that once this is done, my score will improve.

From checkmyfile, it seems that 2 prior initial credit searches is too low (I also only have 2, according to Equifax, and none, according to the other two agencies). So that seems to indicate that applying for credit, and increasing credit searches, is the way to go, ironically, even if you get rejected. I also 'only' have 2 active credit accounts, and apparently this is low and puts people off - so again, apparently, the more accounts you have the better.

This is all quite confusing to me. Since you have a loan, this in fact should stand you in good stead if you are repaying it in full and on time, as this indicates that you're willing to borrow and repay with interest in a predictable and reliable way.

I was thinking of buying the checkmyfile monitoring service next month, once the electoral roll is updated, to see if this affects my scores.

Good luck though, in this vicious catch 22 circle of credit whereby you need a credit card to build your credit history but can't get one because you've got no credit history...

Have you tried your own bank... as they already have a relationship with you they are more likely to offer you a credit card?

Hopefullyuseful1

With credit scores I'd always advise that you contact the companies that give you the credit scores directly (such as Equifax and Experian).

With the late payment you have mentioned (on the Vodafone account) this would be noted as a late payment on your credit score, and if you have not had other opportunities to score since the late payments this may be why you have failed the check.

I'd also advise against completing larges amounts of credit checks in a short period of time, as I'm aware that to many credit checks completed within a 30 day period could lower the credit score you have received.

pierre1

Thanks for the advice. I guess i'll contact the credit agencies directly rather than rely on checkmyfile. Another problem I have is that i have moved with my job every 6 months for the last 3 years which may be lowering my score.

I shall arrange a meeting with the bank manager for a nice chat.

Experian_company_representative

The checkmyfile service includes next-to-no information from Experian - the agency most lenders use for credit checks. Definitely worth checking your Experian credit report to see if you can improve it. There are guidelines in the booklet you receive if you order a paper report, or on the creditexpert site if you take up the online offer. Many lenders are tightening their lending criteria at the moment and are therefore refusing people who might normally have been accepted, so it's a good time to spring clean your credit history.