Sainsburys Balance Transfer - Rejected

YorkshireTeaDrinker

Hi all,
Hoping for some advice please. I have £1500 on a HSBC card & the 0% rate is up in December, so I decided to use the Sainsburys bank 0% balance transfer for 18 months.
Applied with Sainburys & was rejected due to not meeting their criteria apparently.
No late payment history, no other credit cards with outstanding balances (I do have a previous balance transfer card with MBNA which was due up a few months ago & so I paid it off in full (but still have the card & haven't closed my account with MBNA)

I'm concerned about the rejection from Sainsburys. The only thing that I can think would have caused me to be rejected is a car loan I took out in April which is £500 per month.
I can in theory get the money together to pay off my HSBC £1500 before the 0% expires. I'm currently selling my house & will have £40k equity that won't go towards the new house.

My concern is that since I've been rejected by Sainsburys, I don't know how this will impact my credit score? Clear Score (prior to applying) was at 542, which they say is high. Will I now have to say I've been rejected credit in the past whenever I apply for anything? Really not sure how it all works as this is new territory for me.

Any info is greatly welcomed! Stay safe

MattMattMattUK

It is unclear, did they decline you for a new card, or decline the balance transfer?

*Your credit score is irrelevant, it is a made up number for marketing purposes. 

YorkshireTeaDrinker

MattMattMattUK said:

It is unclear, did they decline you for a new card, or decline the balance transfer?

*Your credit score is irrelevant, it is a made up number for marketing purposes. 

It was a balance transfer card I was applying for with Sainsburys Bank. This was what I was rejected for.
The application process includes the balance transfer requirement. I put the £1500 I wanted to transfer & applied, then was rejected. Haven't had any email confirmation or anything from Sainburys etc.

MattMattMattUK

Have you had a search show on your credit record? There are two primary stages of rejection, you could have been rejected before a credit check was conducted because you did not meet their eligibility requirements, or you could have been rejected after the credit check because they did not like something in your credit record. The first would show nothing or a soft search, the latter would probably show a hard search. 

YorkshireTeaDrinker

MattMattMattUK said:

Have you had a search show on your credit record? There are two primary stages of rejection, you could have been rejected before a credit check was conducted because you did not meet their eligibility requirements, or you could have been rejected after the credit check because they did not like something in your credit record. The first would show nothing or a soft search, the latter would probably show a hard search. 

Clear Score shows no hard searches at all and no soft searches since October, but I don't know how quickly they will show up as hard/soft searches through Clear Score

[Deleted User]

They'll only show on Clearscore if they use Equifax. 

Check your other files.

YorkshireTeaDrinker

Deleted_User said:

They'll only show on Clearscore if they use Equifax. 

Check your other files.

Sorry, how would I do that? Are you referring to another credit rating check like Experian?

[Deleted User]

Experian and TransUnion.

YorkshireTeaDrinker

Deleted_User said:

Experian and TransUnion.

Thanks. Signed up to Experian & it has a record of the Sainsbury's application... it says;
Application Type - Credit Card - "Can impact your Experian credit score"
So it looks like they did a full application & not an eligibility check which now has me very worried about the impact on my credit-worthiness in the future.
Is this something that's likely to cause me a lot of trouble going forward?

MattMattMattUK

YorkshireTeaDrinker said:

Is this something that's likely to cause me a lot of trouble going forward?

If the rest of your credit record is good then no, one declined application will make no real difference long term. 

[Deleted User]

YorkshireTeaDrinker said:

Deleted_User said:

Experian and TransUnion.

Is this something that's likely to cause me a lot of trouble going forward?

No.  It's just a search.