Are Barclaycard applications just adverts for Equifax?

Thrugelmir

MichaelSha said:

dr_adidas01 said:

It’s also possible that your not the type of customer they want to do business with, there’s also the possibility that your Debt to Income ratio is to high and maybe declined on that basis. 

I have no debt, my mortgage repayment is < £100 per month, and have a six figure salary, 

Perhaps Barclaycard don't view you as a commercially viable customer. As will have no need to borrow money. 

MichaelSha

Deleted_User said:

It makes lots of sense.

Not all lenders report to all CRAs, so it's perfectly possible for you to have a thin file.

If you think your lenders report to Equifax but are not showing, raise a dispute with Equifax.

Nah, looks like this is an Equifax issue.

ClearScore and Barclaycard use the Royal Mail postcode lookup service that report my address in the following format:
Flat B, [number] [road]

Equifax store my address as
[number]B [road]

When registering with Equifax it looks like it combines Royal Mail and their own data to provide both options upon registering, if I select the 'Flat B' option then they report there is no file. But selecting the [number]B option shows the credit file. 

My problem therefore is that the address Equifax have on file is not my address as reported by Royal Mail, even though they do seem to match financial account information to the file, they seem unable to to match the file when requested by 3rd parties.

Because most online forms (such as ClearScore and Barclaycard) force you to use a postcode lookup rather than enter the address manually, there will always be a miss match.

MichaelSha

Thrugelmir said:

Perhaps Barclaycard don't view you as a commercially viable customer. As will have no need to borrow money. 

They make money from every transaction, not just the loan interest. That is why they offer 2 years interest free on new purchases. If you are in good credit you are very low risk, so why not make money from the 5% transaction fee they charge retailers.

porkisnotmeat

MichaelSha said:

Deleted_User said:

It makes lots of sense.

Not all lenders report to all CRAs, so it's perfectly possible for you to have a thin file.

If you think your lenders report to Equifax but are not showing, raise a dispute with Equifax.

Nah, looks like this is an Equifax issue.

ClearScore and Barclaycard use the Royal Mail postcode lookup service that report my address in the following format:
Flat B, [number] [road]

Equifax store my address as
[number]B [road]

When registering with Equifax it looks like it combines Royal Mail and their own data to provide both options upon registering, if I select the 'Flat B' option then they report there is no file. But selecting the [number]B option shows the credit file. 

My problem therefore is that the address Equifax have on file is not my address as reported by Royal Mail, even though they do seem to match financial account information to the file, they seem unable to to match the file when requested by 3rd parties.

Because most online forms (such as ClearScore and Barclaycard) force you to use a postcode lookup rather than enter the address manually, there will always be a miss match.

Put in a gibberish postcode.  It won't be able to find your postcode and will prompt you to enter your address manually.

Then enter the address Equifax have.

Problem solved.

porkisnotmeat

MichaelSha said:

Thrugelmir said:

Perhaps Barclaycard don't view you as a commercially viable customer. As will have no need to borrow money. 

They make money from every transaction, not just the loan interest. That is why they offer 2 years interest free on new purchases. If you are in good credit you are very low risk, so why not make money from the 5% transaction fee they charge retailers.

They get nothing like 5% from retailers.

Interchange rates for UK transactions are capped at 0.3%.

born_again

MichaelSha said:

dr_adidas01 said:

It’s also possible that your not the type of customer they want to do business with, there’s also the possibility that your Debt to Income ratio is to high and maybe declined on that basis. 

I have no debt, my mortgage repayment is < £100 per month, and have a six figure salary, Lloyds just approved a card with a £15k limit. 

As credit card companies make money from every transaction seems odd they would not want a low risk customer, but maybe they rather make more money from those less able to pay.

I'll check out ClearScore and see if there is anything there.

While you may have "no debt" do you have other credit cards? If so whats the limits on them.


End of the day Card companies make their decisions based on internal data they have and receive from the other financial institution's (missed payments etc). Yes they will check CRA for certain information. But the main point is how they score you internally & if they want to take you on as a customer.

Clearly they use Equifax for their data source, which is why they say to check there. So why are you checking every other CRA but that one?

Chris_English

MichaelSha said:

They won't say, just "these factors MIGHT influence our decision" followed by an advert for Equifax.

No, of course they won’t say. If they did then people would game the system. There are also factors which they take into account which don’t appear on your credit file.

You may just not be the sort of customer that they want, but they are never going to tell you why that is.