Just been turned down by Egg... :/

beeniemac

Right having just been turned down by egg I have requested a copy of my Experian & Equifax reports. I am 19 and have previously had a £1700 loan with HSBC which was repaid perfectly. The only other 'credit' I have had is my phone, which comes out each month by DD without fail. I am on the voters roll and have been since I was 18.
My earnings are approx £13,500.
I do not _need_ a CC but would prefer the security offered online and perhaps for any emergencies or large purchases.
Can anyone see from the information I have given above, why egg have rejected me?
I have been to my bank (HSBC) who offered me an appauling deal (cannot remember the details but I turned my nose up!) so could a couple of recommendations be made as to where I should go next.

Cheers

Chadsman

CC companies can someimes be a bit sniffy about people under 21 for no other reason than their age and they can be prejudiced. You could try writing a letter of appeal to Egg and include some payslips/bank statements and say you are really nice guy really.
If that fails you could try Barclaycard or the Capital 1 secured credit card.
What was so awful about the HSBC deal? Personally if I couldnt get my first choice card I would take whatever card I was offered and use that sensibly to show to future CC providers that I can handle a CC in a responsible manner.
HTH.

Sub_2

My initial Egg online application was declined too. I faxed them a letter asking them to manually reconsider my application, which they did, and was accepted. The girl I spoke to on the phone said she had no idea why my original app had been tunred down, she couldn't see any problems.

Send them a quick letter asking them to give your app a once over, you may well find a human being makes a more sensible decision than their computer.

Incidently, I agree about using a credit card for online purchases. With internet shopping being almost ubiquitous nowadays a credit card is essential to protect yourself properly.

fatboyonadiet

Having known of other people beeing turned down they were more successful when they appealed against the decision, maybe wait for your credit file and if it's in good order send a copy of that with it. It might be that you don't have much of a credit history.

Clariman

I wouldn't dismiss the HSBC card out of hand. It depends on what you want to do with your credit card. If you can, it makes a lot of sense to get into the habit of paying off your credit card in full every month. This will still give you the protection that you are looking for when making purchases but it won't cost you a penny in interest. From a lender's perspective you are young and don't have much of a track record with managing credit/debt, so they can take one of two course of action. They either (a) refuse you a card or (b) charge you a higher interest rate to reflect the greater risk - which is probably what HSBC did.

So where is this taking us ? If you can pay off your credit card in full every month (which you should aim to do), then it doesn't matter what interest rate HSBC will charge you because you will never pay any interest ! So managing an HSBC card carefully over the course of 6 to 12 months will

(a) give you the protection you are looking for
(b) establish a good track record with borrowing which other lenders will see, so that you can get better deals in the future.
(c) not cost you a penny (if you pay off in full every month)

Not to be sniffed at.
Clariman

cifpower

I got declined by Egg and sent an e-mail off asking them to reconsider. A phone call on Saturday afternoon and a nice lady from underwriting asked questions about my work, income, debts and why I wanted a credit card anyway. She put me on hold for 2 minutes and came back saying the decision has been overturned and was given a £2700 limit.

charlie12

One thing to bear in mind is that HSBC cards' account activity are not recorded with credit agencies. So they won't help build a good credit record (with Experian+Equifax), but your record with the bank itself will improve. If you are unable to get a card elsewhere it is still a good idea for convenience, purchase protection, etc.