when do better offers start coming?

gionnetto

Andybez38 wrote: »

I reluctantly thought i would give MBNA a try as i was pre approved for 4 of their cards. After all i had just wasted one hard search on a failed Virgin card. However to my surprise i was accepted given a credit limit and all my approval emails within minutes of my application.
The moral of my story is although i have been successful in obtaining credit cards, car finance etc. This has always come at a higher rate. The better offers came when the default dropped off.

This is because different lenders trust different CRAs. Ideally, when checking for eligibility, you should also check what CRA(s) that lender searches, and not apply if your score with that CRA is low (or has dropped).

I know many claims that "score doesn't matter", but that's because they don't understand how it works. Credit scores work like cardiovascular scores: the number is an estimate of your likelihood of defaulting in the future, just like a cardiovascular score is an estimate of your likelihood for you to have a heart attack. Granted, an estimate is not a prediction, it just expresses a lower or higher *likelihood*. If one only looked at history, one could infer "never had a default, never will have" but it's wrong. Just because you've never died it doesn't mean you won't! For example, if your income is high, your capability of paying off what you borrowed might depend on your income, rather than the fact that you are good at budgeting. Conversely, if your income is low, you can still juggle multiple accounts fine if your budgeting skills are strong.

Different lenders use different CRAs because their risk assessment criteria are similar. It makes sense to trust the prediction of somebody whose criteria are closer to yours. So scores are "meaningless" only insofar as it's not true that a low score won't land you a product you want, just because that specific lender might not use that specific CRA to sort out its prediction. But if you want to maximize your chances to get the product you want at the conditions you want, you need to know what CRA(s) they use, and have a score high enough to meet their criteria.

msallen

gionnetto wrote: »

You need to 1) use your cards every month (between 10 and 20% of the limit)

Why do you persist in posting meaningless and incorrect "rules" that you have either made up or accepted as true from someone else who made them up?

msallen

gionnetto wrote: »

Different lenders use different CRAs because their risk assessment criteria are similar. It makes sense to trust the prediction of somebody whose criteria are closer to yours. So scores are "meaningless" only insofar as it's not true that a low score won't land you a product you want, just because that specific lender might not use that specific CRA to sort out its prediction. But if you want to maximize your chances to get the product you want at the conditions you want, you need to know what CRA(s) they use, and have a score high enough to meet their criteria.

More unmitigated drivel.

[Deleted User]

Still banging on about the score I see.

Lenders DO NOT see, care about or use the scores generated by the CRA marketing departments.

PixelPound

Andybez38 wrote: »

...
I went on the comparison sites and opted for a Virgin money card offering a good 0% purchase rate for a couple of years. Eligibility came up as very good chance. So i applied and was declined.
To say i was disappointed was an understatement. I'd waited for the default to be removed. Researched my options, asked for advice and it still was not to be.
I reluctantly thought i would give MBNA a try as i was pre approved for 4 of their cards. After all i had just wasted one hard search on a failed Virgin card. However to my surprise i was accepted given a credit limit and all my approval emails within minutes of my application.
The moral of my story is although i have been successful in obtaining credit cards, car finance etc. This has always come at a higher rate. The better offers came when the default dropped off.

Going for the pre-approved can be the best option, especially as MBNA give fairly decent credit limits compared to some others.

The problem with your Virgin application is the "very good chance". If you checked and it said 90% chance many people wrongly assume that means they should get the card. All it means that if ten people with similar circumstances to you applied, one will be declined. People often also don't read the smallprint with these percentages which often says something along the lines of "unless pre-approved you may be offered less months at 0%" etc (depending on the promotion). So you'll get some cards offering say 2 years at 0% and show a high chance of being accepted - so they could accept you but you may end up with say 6 months at 0% rather than what was on offer. An example of this is the Halifax that offers a 0% BT with no fee, but some people it accepts will get 18 rather than 20 months and be charged 3% BT fee.

Congrats on getting a card, hope it is what you wanted.