Anyone know why this has happened? Just intrigued to know.

Max68

Have a Virgin Credit Card which had a 0% balance transfer and purchases promotional period ending in January.  Got a letter through from Barclaycard offering me a 0% balance transfer rate till March 2024 which I was pleasantly surprised with as never had any decent offers on my Barclaycard.  So, I transferred my Virgin balance over to my Barclaycard therefore no longer owing on the Virgin card.  I have had another Virgin card, also paid off and closed that account months ago.

Thing is prior to the balance transfer to BC, Experian and the like were showing me offers for new Virgin cards, both balance transfers and purchases with a 100% preapproval rating.  Obviously, I know that is no guarantee but so far with preapproval I haven't been turned down.  However today I was just clearing up a few emails and just out of interest I logged in to the likes of Experian and I no longer have any offers at all for Virgin cards of any type.  They all state an approval rating of 0%.  Funny thing is the Sainsbury's card of which I had one and paid it off over a year ago also gives me a 0% approval rating on any of their cards.

It's not a problem as I have no current need for another card, but I was just intrigued as to why pre balance transfer Virgin were offering all these preapproved cards and now it's 0% approval.  Is it because I transferred the balance rather than paying it off direct or do you just have less options for a period after transferring a balance, or something else?  Can't remember too many issues before when I had two Virgin cards, so I am a bit confused why my "offers" have suddenly nose dived and can't find any answer by googling.  Thank you.

Ebe_Scrooge

There's no single reason for this.  One aspect is that lenders in general are becoming more stringent with their criteria.  Another may be that Virgin are not making any money from you.  It's not a hard-and-fast rule, but in general lenders will offer a 0% to tempt new customers in.

The hope is that you'll continue using the card, which generates income for them.  It doesn't matter if you always clear the card in full every month, and therefore pay no interest (which is the correct way to use it).  As long as you use the card regularly, the lender will be making plenty of money from the fees the retailer has to pay every time you use it.

So taking the 0% offer costs them money, but if you then subsequently close the card they've got no reason to try and tempt you back.

Like I say, this is not always the case, just a general marketing strategy used by lots of lenders.

DullGreyGuy

Ebe_Scrooge said:

There's no single reason for this.  One aspect is that lenders in general are becoming more stringent with their criteria.  Another may be that Virgin are not making any money from you.  It's not a hard-and-fast rule, but in general lenders will offer a 0% to tempt new customers in.

Given this is what the OP is seeing on Experian... do the card issuers actually give Experian a live probability score, they give them an algorithm to apply or Experian have made up the algorithm themselves without input from the individual card issuers?

[Deleted User]

DullGreyGuy said:

Ebe_Scrooge said:

There's no single reason for this.  One aspect is that lenders in general are becoming more stringent with their criteria.  Another may be that Virgin are not making any money from you.  It's not a hard-and-fast rule, but in general lenders will offer a 0% to tempt new customers in.

Given this is what the OP is seeing on Experian... do the card issuers actually give Experian a live probability score, they give them an algorithm to apply or Experian have made up the algorithm themselves without input from the individual card issuers?

Bit of both, in some cases the lender will pay commission to Experian for referrals so would obviously want only successful applicants so would have agreed some lending criteria

DullGreyGuy

Deleted_User said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Ebe_Scrooge said:

There's no single reason for this.  One aspect is that lenders in general are becoming more stringent with their criteria.  Another may be that Virgin are not making any money from you.  It's not a hard-and-fast rule, but in general lenders will offer a 0% to tempt new customers in.

Given this is what the OP is seeing on Experian... do the card issuers actually give Experian a live probability score, they give them an algorithm to apply or Experian have made up the algorithm themselves without input from the individual card issuers?

Bit of both, in some cases the lender will pay commission to Experian for referrals so would obviously want only successful applicants so would have agreed some lending criteria

Would have thought in all cases they are paying commission just as they do for other affiliate marketing schemes... you get an idea of approximately how much by looking at the likes of Quidco and see how much they are passing through.

Obviously with Quidco all and sundry can click through and apply and the bank pays out the commission on those successful ones. I'm not sure if a bank would offer more commission if you could supplied less rejections? At the end of the day even rejected applications have a marketing value and not sure the application process has any significant cost for the bank? 

Max68

Thank you.  I was intrigued because both Experian and Credit Score weren't offering Virgin, whereas both were prior to the bank transfer.  Funnily enough prior Credit Score had Virgin Cards at 95% approval, but Experian had the same cards at 100%.  Bit of a mine field because I assume that if you apply and get turned down it can affect your credit score?

Trying an experiment.  Put some shopping today on the Virgin Card as I've still got the promotional period till January and will check Experian again in a few days to see what if any offers there are.

It's a bit annoying as two weeks ago there was for instance a 20 odd month balance and purchases Virgin card at preapproval.  If I had known that it would vanish to 0%, I might have nabbed it prior to the balance transfer to use it like I have used the Barclaycard for purchases and paying off the next month and just concentrate in paying off the balance on the BC.  I just assumed with XYZ owed on the other Virgin Card the likelihood of getting it would be lower.  Seems a tad bizarre that if you owe Virgin XYZ they are more likely to offer you a new card than they have when I have paid off the balance!!

RBYHS

Check directly on the Virgin website?

[Deleted User]

DullGreyGuy said:

Deleted_User said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Ebe_Scrooge said:

There's no single reason for this.  One aspect is that lenders in general are becoming more stringent with their criteria.  Another may be that Virgin are not making any money from you.  It's not a hard-and-fast rule, but in general lenders will offer a 0% to tempt new customers in.

Given this is what the OP is seeing on Experian... do the card issuers actually give Experian a live probability score, they give them an algorithm to apply or Experian have made up the algorithm themselves without input from the individual card issuers?

Bit of both, in some cases the lender will pay commission to Experian for referrals so would obviously want only successful applicants so would have agreed some lending criteria

Would have thought in all cases they are paying commission just as they do for other affiliate marketing schemes... you get an idea of approximately how much by looking at the likes of Quidco and see how much they are passing through.

Obviously with Quidco all and sundry can click through and apply and the bank pays out the commission on those successful ones. I'm not sure if a bank would offer more commission if you could supplied less rejections? At the end of the day even rejected applications have a marketing value and not sure the application process has any significant cost for the bank? 

Yes and no - they might have a deal with Experian for example where they agree lending criteria and thus pay for the applicants but want to limit their pay-outs so only pay for successful applicants, others may just pay an "advertising" fee to have their cards aimed at borrowers in different bandings and pay less if 100 people apply but only 10 are successful, commercial relationships are hard to ever find details on

Max68

RBYHS said:

Check directly on the Virgin website?

As in apply or can you check on their website?

DullGreyGuy

Deleted_User said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Deleted_User said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Ebe_Scrooge said:

There's no single reason for this.  One aspect is that lenders in general are becoming more stringent with their criteria.  Another may be that Virgin are not making any money from you.  It's not a hard-and-fast rule, but in general lenders will offer a 0% to tempt new customers in.

Given this is what the OP is seeing on Experian... do the card issuers actually give Experian a live probability score, they give them an algorithm to apply or Experian have made up the algorithm themselves without input from the individual card issuers?

Bit of both, in some cases the lender will pay commission to Experian for referrals so would obviously want only successful applicants so would have agreed some lending criteria

Would have thought in all cases they are paying commission just as they do for other affiliate marketing schemes... you get an idea of approximately how much by looking at the likes of Quidco and see how much they are passing through.

Obviously with Quidco all and sundry can click through and apply and the bank pays out the commission on those successful ones. I'm not sure if a bank would offer more commission if you could supplied less rejections? At the end of the day even rejected applications have a marketing value and not sure the application process has any significant cost for the bank? 

Yes and no - they might have a deal with Experian for example where they agree lending criteria and thus pay for the applicants but want to limit their pay-outs so only pay for successful applicants, others may just pay an "advertising" fee to have their cards aimed at borrowers in different bandings and pay less if 100 people apply but only 10 are successful, commercial relationships are hard to ever find details on

That's how affiliate marketing works... its a success fee not a click fee. The cash back sites were the same, particularly in the old days... they get £50 if a referral takes up a credit card and they promise to pay the referred £45 as "cash back" if they receive the monies. 

That still wouldnt require the credit card companies to share any information with Experian... my old website used to have affiliate marketing on it, which at one point included life insurance options because the referral fee was so high. Not once did any of the underwriters contact me to say they preferred referrals from this demographic of customers etc... unfortunately not once did it ever make a sale, thankfully some other lower paying advertisers were much more successful.

I can see what's in it for Experian to know what lender likes what as it maximises their chances of generating revenue because they can recommend the best combination of probability and fee (a 95% chance of a £50 fee is probably better than a 99% of a £1 fee - not that fees spreads are that wide). I just dont see what's in it for the bank to be sharing the corporate secrets to avoid getting declines for which they pay Experian nothing but potentially get marketing data.

Max68

RBYHS said:

Check directly on the Virgin website?

Just a belated thanks for the above suggestion.  Experian, Credit score etc were still offering very little a couple of months on including zero chance on another Virgin Card so went on the Virgin site and was pre-approved for a 0% for 16 months on balance transfers and purchases card which I received yesterday.  Many thanks.