Unexpected rejection

System

Sounds like a credit utilisation issue.

Truth be told, with what you have told us I would be "nervous" about lending to you. Not that I wouldn't. Your lack of missed payments is great. But it will be how much debt you have and how long you can sustain this before things start to slip.

samuelmorris

I bank with Santander, who also supply the credit card, so not really relevant unfortunately, since as far as I know you can't usually balance transfer within the same lender.

I'll take a look at Barclaycard's eligibility checker. The main point I have to ask is, would a subsequent application to Barclaycard be compromised by being declined at HSBC this evening? I know people suggest it's common practice to wait a period of months between applications if you get rejected but of course this is on the assumption your credit rating improves - as things stand I don't see anything changing to affect it.

[Deleted User]

No two or three won’t do much harm.

You have no credit rating to improve - it’s as meaningful as your near-perfect score

samuelmorris

Thanks - Barclaycard site simply concurs with MSE's 95% rating, so I'll have a go at that tomorrow and see how far I get.

MEM62

samuelmorris wrote: »

As the balance is starting to rack up on my regular credit card I thought it high time to apply for a 0% balance transfer card to help with paying the balance off.

If your borrowing in creeping up the prudent thing to do is look at your spending and you are, in effect, spending more than you earn. This is not sustainable.

Prior to applying, I checked my experian score (not foolproof I admit but at least a guideline) and it came back with 984.
That will be worth something as a reference the day that Experian start lending money. I chose to apply for a recommended card on MoneySupermarket with HSBC - I forget the exact terms but it was around 27 months 0% and 20% APR thereafter with a 1.4% or so transfer fee. Reading the basic terms I didn't find anything untoward.

My application was straight-up declined and after speaking to HSBC about it all it will say is that the application was declined based on my credit score. They won't specify which agency declined the application or why.

What do you mean which agency declined the application? It would only be HSBC, the company you applied to.

This obviously came as a bit of a surprise. The last (and pretty much only) time I missed a credit card payment was over 10 years ago. I have no dependents, am full time employed with a modest but near-UK-average salary and have two existing credit agreements both in good standing - the aforementioned credit card which I've had for 6 years, and a car PCP arrangement which has been running for 9 months so far. The only thing that might count against me is not having a mortgage. There are also three mobile service contracts in my name but I'm not sure how much of a difference they make. They've also all been running for 5+ years.

Missed payments are not the only reason for a rejection. Affordability is also considered and even if you pass both of these you may just not fit that company's lending criteria.

Could anyone suggest what I should do next? I'm not about to be ruined by debt but I'm up to around £100 a month on credit card interest which is really slowing down my ability to pay off the balance. I'm mindful that being declined this application may make it difficult to apply elsewhere, and if a near-perfect Experian score with credit history and no missed payments in almost a decade isn't enough for a balance transfer card, what are my alternatives? Is it worth applying for another with a different bank, and if so, how soon after?

I would not be comfortable that £100 of my monthly income was just servicing debt interest.

Thanks in advance

Do you currently have any savings? If not and you have increasing debt then you are living beyond your means. Currently your debt appears to be relatively small and it is a this stage that you have a great opportunity to make some modest lifestyle (ie spending) changes that will have a huge benefit for your future self. You need to look at where you can cut back on your spending to the point where you are at least living within your means and from there a little more to the point where you are saving regularly.

If you can BT the CC debt this will of course, help in the short-term, but I think you need to be considering the longer term picture.

samuelmorris

I appreciate the advice and you're right of course. It would be far better if the debt wasn't there to begin with. I do have savings greater than the size of the debt but only in the form of an ISA which I have no intention of touching for the sake of credit card debt.

I wouldn't necessarily describe myself as living beyond my means but unfortunately there was some fallout from my previous job which results in me losing a fair amount of the pay from my current job for 2 years (long story!), hitting after an expensive holiday was booked, but before the balance was paid. Thus, paying off the balance has been far slower than anticipated.

I'll have a go at another balance transfer card today and see how I get on, failing that, yes indeed, it will just mean another year or so of very frugal living!

BoGoF

samuelmorris wrote: »

. I do have savings greater than the size of the debt but only in the form of an ISA which I have no intention of touching for the sake of credit card debt.

I'll have a go at another balance transfer card today and see how I get on, failing that, yes indeed, it will just mean another year or so of very frugal living!

That is a crazy approach, you are prepared to pay £100 interest a month rather than touch an ISA that is likely paying you a pittance a month?

samuelmorris

Considering there are costs associated with withdrawing from the ISA, yes - it was never the intention to have a large balance sitting on the credit card long term.

Good news, Barclaycard have accepted the application (though their site didn't work on my PC and I had to log in elsewhere to apply) and have set a considerably larger credit limit than even the one I have with Santander. I don't have any intention of using that limit of course, but it just goes to show what a difference there is between lenders.