Wrong Information on Credit Request Increase

abaka

Hi - Random question which is causing me a fair bit of anxiety.

I put in a credit request through my Virgin App but I'm fairly certain I put in the wrong income I'm fairly certain (I was half asleep when I done it) I think I hit 36000 (I'm not even sure if I hit this amount, but I'm fairly certain!) instead of 32000....I then realised my error when I properly woke up and put through the increase again with my correct details....However paranoia set in that I was going to be viewed as fraudulent application so I decided to phone up and cancel the applications which I apparently couldn't do so to be safe I decided to just cancel the entire card.  If this was to be viewed as Fraud, would the fact that I took decisive action to cancel the account and therefore did not benefit in any way from "inflating my income"....For info, I was requesting an increase from £6000 to £7500 so I'm not sure adding an extra 4k a year to my salary would have made that much difference....But I'm so worried that I'm going to end up going to jail for fraud!!!

Ebe_Scrooge

You won't be going to jail, don't worry!!

It's true that if you make dozens of applications with wildly varying income declarations, you could get into trouble.  But the worst that would happen is that you'd end up with a CIFAS marker on your file, making it extremely difficult to obtain future credit.

But you'd need to be really "playing the system" with lots of different companies for that to happen - a single (and genuine) mistake will not have any affect at all.  Phoning them up was all you needed to do - cancelling the card is a bit overkill.  If you spoke to them and they were happy with what you told them, that's the end of the matter.

abaka

Ebe_Scrooge said:

You won't be going to jail, don't worry!!

It's true that if you make dozens of applications with wildly varying income declarations, you could get into trouble.  But the worst that would happen is that you'd end up with a CIFAS marker on your file, making it extremely difficult to obtain future credit.

But you'd need to be really "playing the system" with lots of different companies for that to happen - a single (and genuine) mistake will not have any affect at all.  Phoning them up was all you needed to do - cancelling the card is a bit overkill.  If you spoke to them and they were happy with what you told them, that's the end of the matter.

To be honest I panicked and feared the worst.  I am currently in the process of clearing a bit of debt and reading about CIFAS and impact of lenders cancelling accounts and demanding final payment would push me over the edge and leave me financially crippled.  But I feel somrwhat better knowing that it was a genuine mistake and by cancelling the account I have demonstrated that my intention was not to make any financial gain.

The flip side is that I might be able to get a better product from Virgin in a years time when I need to look at other balance transfers....Unless I'm not CIFAD!!  

[Deleted User]

Banks understand people make mistakes, the logical thing would be to have rung or messaged them in the morning and admit you made a typo and would they amend it. There is no point cancelling the card but it might be a bit late now.

Ebe_Scrooge

Deleted_User said:

Banks understand people make mistakes, the logical thing would be to have rung or messaged them in the morning and admit you made a typo and would they amend it.

To be fair, the OP did say they did that:

abaka said:

 I decided to phone up and cancel the applications which I apparently couldn't do

Although why the bank wouldn't let them cancel the application I'm not sure.

[Deleted User]

Ebe_Scrooge said:

Deleted_User said:

Banks understand people make mistakes, the logical thing would be to have rung or messaged them in the morning and admit you made a typo and would they amend it.

To be fair, the OP did say they did that:

abaka said:

 I decided to phone up and cancel the applications which I apparently couldn't do

Although why the bank wouldn't let them cancel the application I'm not sure.

OP said they tried to cancel it after putting in two different applications with different amounts. As I said, they should just have rung up and said they made a typo after the first one

abaka

Yeah - They said they couldn't cancel it because it was an automated system process.  I asked was there anybody who I could speak too to cancel the requests and was told no.  So that was why I went for the option of cancelling out right...In the off chance they do think it was fraudulent I think the fact I rang immediately to alert them to the information discrepancies and when told I couldn't cancel any pending limit increase requests I then decided to cancel the cards will show that there was no intent to deceive on my part.

[Deleted User]

abaka said:

Yeah - They said they couldn't cancel it because it was an automated system process.  I asked was there anybody who I could speak too to cancel the requests and was told no.  So that was why I went for the option of cancelling out right...In the off chance they do think it was fraudulent I think the fact I rang immediately to alert them to the information discrepancies and when told I couldn't cancel any pending limit increase requests I then decided to cancel the cards will show that there was no intent to deceive on my part.

It wasn't really necessary to try and cancel either of them, you could have asked them to update the application or leave a note for the team. Even automated systems can have manual reviews at times. A super pedant could argue that cancelling the card was a guilty conscience catching up with you but it sounds like it's all been resolved properly and chalk it down to experience, just be careful to be consistent with any future applications

abaka

As I say, I did ask if I could cancel or amend the error application.  But was told there was no method.  When I asked if I could even leave a note to explain the issue/discrepancy, the advisor said she could leave notes but it likely wouldn’t make much difference as it’s an automated review/process.

That was when I just thought screw it.  Cancel the entire card as it was turning out to be more of a headache than it’s worth.  Im still nervous about any consequences but the account is closed so I’m hoping that’s the end of it. 

Ebe_Scrooge

abaka said:

As I say, I did ask if I could cancel or amend the error application.  But was told there was no method.  When I asked if I could even leave a note to explain the issue/discrepancy, the advisor said she could leave notes but it likely wouldn’t make much difference as it’s an automated review/process.

That was when I just thought screw it.  Cancel the entire card as it was turning out to be more of a headache than it’s worth.  Im still nervous about any consequences but the account is closed so I’m hoping that’s the end of it. 

Honestly, I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill.  You made a simple error, you phoned them up to explain.  I think cancelling the card was an unnecessary step, but what's done is done.

Please be assured, you're not going to get into any kind of bother for what was a one-off, genuine error.