Will two hard checks affect credit score?

Adder500

Hi,

I went to place an order with a retailer a couple of days ago that opened up a separate Klarna window to apply for 24 months interest free credit. The retailer said that I have 30 minutes to complete it and the stock would be held for that time. It took about 10-15 minutes to fill out everything on the various Klarna windows. It appeared that everything was going through as, towards the end, it showed a PDF with all of the payment information etc. At the very end, it asked me to click the button to accept and sign the agreement. When I did this, the window closed and the retailer's site just showed that the page had expired and to try the order again.

I don't know why it expired when I was well within the time stated but I suspect that the retailer's website hasn't been set to wait long enough. I checked my credit report and can see that two soft searches were done by Klarna, (anti money laundering and affordability) and also a hard check for the credit application. I also found that I've now got a Klarna account which I can log into on their website. It has all of my information but doesn't show any orders or payments due. I can't tell whether the application would've been successful or not but I have a really good credit score and as I now have this Klarna account, it's possible it was accepted.

I've been in contact with both the retailer and Klarna and they both say that there's no order, so it definitely didn't go through. Both of them can't say whether trying to order again would affect my credit score or not. I also tried calling Transunion, but they couldn't tell me whether it's safe to try the order again either.

The original retailer doesn't have stock any more and can't tell me when they're likely to have any. I've found two other retailers that do have stock and also use Klarna but I'm not sure what to do now.

Has anyone had something like this happen to them or have any ideas? I don't want to affect my credit score by having two hard checks in a short space of time, but is this relevant if both hard checks are from the same lender but different retailers? Should I wait for a period of time before trying again to be on the safe side? Klarna now have all of my information for nothing and I'm not sure how to proceed.

Any help or advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks!

[Deleted User]

Credit scores aren't a thing in the UK,as far as lending and credit is concerned. You'll only be assessed on your credit history.

A couple of searches isn't an issue on a well managed file. However, if you're more at the desperate end, it's best avoided.

Try a third application if you really need this credit, then leave it there.

Adder500

Thanks for your help zx81. There's currently only one hard search because after the retailer's page expired, I checked my credit report and after seeing this, didn't want to place the order again in case the first one had actually gone through.

Now I know that the order definitely wasn't placed due to a website issue, I'm tempted to try again, (probably with another retailer), which would then cause a second hard search from Klarna again as the retailers all use this lender. My credit rating is very good and I've never missed any payments on anything in the past, so hopefully a second search won't cause too many issues.

It's just frustrating that this has been caused by the retailer's website timing out and not something that I did wrong. If they say you have 30 minutes to complete the application, it shouldn't time out in less than 15.

MaryNB

Adder500 said:

 My credit rating is very good and I've never missed any payments on anything in the past, so hopefully a second search won't cause too many issues.

As zx81 has already said that score doesn't matter. Ignore it. Lenders don't see it. They only see your history and they use that to do their own internal scoring. The score you see is just a marketing gimmick. 

Once six months passes the hard scores will have little bearing on future credit applications and they will drop off your file after a year or two.