Tandem Card very low credit limit

andy_poulton

As this is the latest cash back card and Amazon have reduced there cash back to .05% for £2 [1.5% for £2 Amazon purchases] and AMEX not accepted everywhere.
I applied hoping, to replace both cards.

AMEX has given me a huge credit limit. Amazon Mastercard too.

Cannot use the Tandem one to replace them as it is only £1200?
Okay not that I am fully flushed [ha ha] it's just that I pay for EVERYTHING on it [virtually cashless] so it would soon get used up.

Tried to reason with the various Tandem departments and it was a NO NO and quoted my credit rating etc causing it.

That set me off trying to find out what was wrong, a few hours spent then signed up for the MSE Money club.
ITS really really FINE. No black/bad points.

What went wrong?

Cheers Andy

[Deleted User]

It's a combination of your credit history and their risk criteria.

It's rare you can isolate it to a single factor. I could list dozens but they may not apply to you.

letitbe90

It might not be your credit history that is the issue, you could have a great one and still be rejected for credit. The reason might be that you don't fit the credit profile that they are looking for - which is driven by profitability rather than how good your credit rating is.


Another reason could be any recent credit searches in the past 6-12 months, different providers have different criteria.


One thing to note is every company has its own algorithm with various constraints, they are never perfect and infact far from perfect as there are lots of people they would have accepted and lots of people they wouldn't if they manually underwrit everyone. That itself is an ongoing project where improvements are made to their algorithm by actuaries/developers over time based on results.

SuiDreams

Do you really need more that £1,200 on top of your AMEX limit? Tandem gave me a £3K limit, but never going to get anywhere near that as my non Amex spending is probably only a couple of hundred a month. with some online payments I get around the not accepting Amex issue by paying on PayPal and having that linked to my Amex card.

andy_poulton

Cheers Guys.
Thanks for the all the very valid replies. I understand.
I will stop being 'miffed' for a bit.

I will check my monthly non Amex Amazon Mastercard use suidreams. It may be that WILL work for me after all.
Nice to hear you are doing the same as me too re PayPal and Amex.

[I recently got caught out with a big £2k EU purchase bill. It converted to £ okay, the site accepted AMEX.
FINE.
However was set to accept ONLY a three digit security code

After trying 3 times then emailing the company I lost the sale.
I returned and got another chance [higher price] and used the Amazon card.
FINE.
Then finally after ringing them [SWISS] company they decided on balance to honour the first deal.]

Andy

System

People with literally "exemplary" credit histories get rejected by Tandem. They are an odd company with an 8 page thread of complaints on this forum. More than any other card.

[Deleted User]

Though your credit history isn’t the only thing that makes up a companies decision to lend to you

System

!!! wrote: »

Though your credit history isn’t the only thing that makes up a companies decision to lend to you

Well true, but all the only criteria they can use is what you tell them and whats in your credit files. So your income, name, address. Most pertinent info is on the credit files.

andy_poulton

Long phone calls to Tandem.

NOW someone has discovered that my APP has been put through for the 'poor credit' rating card' 'JOURNEY' NOT the cashback card.
sigh sigh
THUS the low credit.

'Someone' is now looking into it.

System

andy_poulton wrote: »

Long phone calls to Tandem.

NOW someone has discovered that my APP has been put through for the 'poor credit' rating card' 'JOURNEY' NOT the cashback card.
sigh sigh
THUS the low credit.

'Someone' is now looking into it.

You genuinely wonder how many FCA rules tandem are breaking everyday. Seems like a total cowboy outfit.

jim1999

They did fail to get a license, after all...