Credit card refusal

kokolino23

Hello,
I'm a home owner, mortgage left is about 1/5 of the house value.
My Experian score is max and Clearscore is very high as well.
50k/year salary outside London, no credit cards ATM.
I've had 2 credit cards with Tesco in the past (not in the last couple of years though) and never missed a payment, cleared the debt at the end of their promotion period.
My recent application was refused and when I rang them up, I've been passed on from one dept to another (underwriters, etc) until I've been told that my application had nothing to do with my credit score and was an internal decision ?! Could this be related to the fact that I cleared my debt during at the end of their promotional period previously ?! I'm wondering if taking advantage of their offer was the refusal reason.
They've insisted to put an appeal through which I did eventually even though my initial intention was to apply somewhere else. I thought I can save some time if I'll wait for their final answer instead of applying for a credit card with another bank.
Tesco approved my cc application a few years ago when my financial situation wasn't as good as the current one.
Should I bother waiting for their decision or apply somewhere else?
Thank you

MrFrugalFever

I would ask why a credit card is needed in the first instance.

there will now be a hard credit search on your report. You may get lucky and be approved elsewhere but I certainly wouldn’t be applying multiple times.

each of the brokers like Clearscore and Credit Karma etc have an eligibility checker, will be worth checking them out first.

[Deleted User]

kokolino23 said:

 I've been told that my application had nothing to do with my credit score and was an internal decision ?! 

No credit decisions are ever based on your credit score and always on lender criteria. 

Your thin credit history may be an issue, or you may just not be their target audience. 

Try any application elsewhere, but first check your credit files to see if there are negatives on there you weren't aware of.

Sandtree

kokolino23 said:
I've been told that my application had nothing to do with my credit score and was an internal decision

Anyone could have told you that because its the same for absolutely every application with the possible argument of it being different if you are on a government sanctions list.

Lenders don't see your credit score, its a fabricated number made up by companies as a way to get access to your data and attempt to sell you things. Lenders get your history, data from other sources and then make a decision internally if to lend or not.

Lodging an appeal can work, I went from a decline to an acceptance with a £12,000 limit a few years back but dont bother looking for any further explanation of the decisions.

Do you have any other credit than the mortgage? A lack of recent history could be the issue but all anyone can do is speculate.

kokolino23

I need a CC because I have to purchase something for house improvements and I'd like to use the 0% APR for a certain period.
I can't see why I would be on the Gov sanction list. No other credit than the mortgage. My last one was cancelled less than 1 year ago after my debt was cleared.
How can I check my credit file?
I can't see anything on Experian or Clearscore.

[Deleted User]

kokolino23 said:

How can I check my credit file?
I can't see anything on Experian or Clearscore.

You can check them via MSE Credit Club (Experian), Clearscore (Equifax) and Credit Karma (TransUnion).

Check all the data on each. If your files are largely empty as you suggest, that is likely to be the problem.

Thrugelmir

kokolino23 said:

My last one was cancelled less than 1 year ago after my debt was cleared.

That it simply be policy not to reopen account within a predefined period. Why close an account if you might need it again in the future. All you are doing is putting the lender through unneccessary time and expense. 

kokolino23

Deleted_User said:

kokolino23 said:

How can I check my credit file?
I can't see anything on Experian or Clearscore.

You can check them via MSE Credit Club (Experian), Clearscore (Equifax) and Credit Karma (TransUnion).

Check all the data on each. If your files are largely empty as you suggest, that is likely to be the problem.

I've got both Experian and Clearscore but I can't see that option ?! I can search for credit cards but I don't know where to look for the credit file.
Thanks 

kokolino23

Thrugelmir said:

kokolino23 said:

My last one was cancelled less than 1 year ago after my debt was cleared.

That it simply be policy not to reopen account within a predefined period. Why close an account if you might need it again in the future. All you are doing is putting the lender through unneccessary time and expense. 

That's not true, I've had a card with them and at the end of the promotion period they told me to cancel the current card and apply for a new one. Was approved within days, was before the pandemic though. 

kokolino23

Just managed to check my credit file on Clearscore and there is no search on my account at all. I can see all my previous ones, including insurance, broadband, etc but nothing from Tesco or another cc search in the last few weeks.
So looks like they didn't even bother and the decision was purely internally as told already. 
Must be something to do with keeping the previous cards during the promotion period.

Thrugelmir

kokolino23 said:

Thrugelmir said:

kokolino23 said:

My last one was cancelled less than 1 year ago after my debt was cleared.

That it simply be policy not to reopen account within a predefined period. Why close an account if you might need it again in the future. All you are doing is putting the lender through unneccessary time and expense. 

That's not true, I've had a card with them and at the end of the promotion period they told me to cancel the current card and apply for a new one. Was approved within days, was before the pandemic though. 

Policies aren't set in stone. Times change. Bottom line is that customers need to be profitable to warrant taking on board. This would be your third account now.