Barclaycard declined Credit Card application despite being pre approved, appeal or apply elsewhere

RWhitts

Applied for a Barclaycard 0% charge and 0% transfer in order to pay off another credit card that I was about to pay off with a bonus but was (quite rightly) convinced by the Pension forum to sacrifice the bonus in to my pension and to pay off the CC another way. All good up until Barclay Card declined me despite being "Pre-approved". I have a flawless credit record, good earnings / employment history, masses of equity in my house, no dependants etc so am quite frustrated at my time apparently being wasted.

I always used to use my CC only to buy on-line purchases and always paid it off but recently built up a one time £4,800 debt on it for a building project where I didn't want to borrow anymore and was going to use income to pay it off over the next few months.

Am I going to get anywhere in appealing? Also I need to do something as the bonus has gone to the pension so shall I apply to another company as well, if so any suggestions? I've got some options from searches but obviously the zero fee one was of particular interest.

I'm also worried that getting declined again could affect my credit score.

Thanks in advance.

MorningcoffeeIV

Go elsewhere. Barclaycard are flakey at present.

You files will show a search, not a decline. And your credit score is made up and irrelevant. A search or two will not be dertrimental.

Brie

No.  Pre-approved is meaningless.  It's a robot making a guess whereas an application should have more detail that means that Barclaycard's making a more informed decision.  And unfortunately they are sticklers for ensuring they like you and only allow you to have the absolute minimum of credit.   By your line "I didn't want to borrow anymore" it sounds like there was more than the £4800 on the one card that they were looking at.  Might be your mortgage, overdraft, phone contract, who knows.  But the total of that made you a bad risk in their opinion. 

So what next?  How long do you have before you have to pay this money off?  When did you apply for the Bcard?  

Your credit rating is fairly irrelevant but the income versus overall debt will be the deciding factors.  That along with how desperate you might look if you do several card applications in rapid succession - hence you might need to wait a while. 

When you do get round to it - MBNA has had generous limits which haven't been lowered (unlike some cards) and almost always have 0% deals.

RWhitts

MorningcoffeeIV said:

Go elsewhere. Barclaycard are flakey at present.

You files will show a search, not a decline. And your credit score is made up and irrelevant. A search or two will not be dertrimental.

Thank you. Trouble is they looked to be the only one what offered 0 fee - a few others do but looks like my amount was too high for them.

Even more frustrating is that the decline letter says to write to appeal and no phone number anywhere so thats just going to delay things. 

CliveOfIndia

RWhitts said:

MorningcoffeeIV said:

Go elsewhere. Barclaycard are flakey at present.

You files will show a search, not a decline. And your credit score is made up and irrelevant. A search or two will not be dertrimental.

Thank you. Trouble is they looked to be the only one what offered 0 fee - a few others do but looks like my amount was too high for them.

Even more frustrating is that the decline letter says to write to appeal and no phone number anywhere so thats just going to delay things. 

HSBC do a fee-free one, as noted on the MSE guide: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/balance-transfer-credit-cards/

You do need to read the small print carefully - I think it's only fee-free for some customers, depending on how much they like you    But it does tell you whether or not you'll be charged a fee once your application is completed.

I got the HSBC card just before Xmas, and was given a very generous limit - far more than I needed or will ever use.  Though of course, the limit they'll offer to any customer is entirely dependent on that person's particular credit history/record/income/etc.

If it were me I wouldn't bother appealing.  The application process is all automated - they churn your data through their algorithms and the computer spits out an answer.  Yes, they do have the ability for a manual review, but I'd be surprised if it gave a different result, even if they bother to do one.

If the Barclaycard was the only application you've made recently, then one more to a different lender won't hurt.  It's generally reckoned that 2 applications in a short space of time is OK, more than a couple then lenders start to get a bit jittery.

RWhitts

Brie said:

No.  Pre-approved is meaningless.  It's a robot making a guess whereas an application should have more detail that means that Barclaycard's making a more informed decision.  And unfortunately they are sticklers for ensuring they like you and only allow you to have the absolute minimum of credit.   By your line "I didn't want to borrow anymore" it sounds like there was more than the £4800 on the one card that they were looking at.  Might be your mortgage, overdraft, phone contract, who knows.  But the total of that made you a bad risk in their opinion. 

So what next?  How long do you have before you have to pay this money off?  When did you apply for the Bcard?  

Your credit rating is fairly irrelevant but the income versus overall debt will be the deciding factors.  That along with how desperate you might look if you do several card applications in rapid succession - hence you might need to wait a while. 

When you do get round to it - MBNA has had generous limits which haven't been lowered (unlike some cards) and almost always have 0% deals.

Hi there.I have only ever had one credit card for say 20 years and this is the first time I have used it for borrowing, and only for 3 months so far and the amount outstanding is still at the amount I asked to transfer. My wife and I bring in more income in a year than the total left on our mortgage, our outgoings are low, I have NEVER been declined on anything in all my 54 years and the only other major thing showing on my report is a PCP deal for a car which is adequately covered by my employment car allowance, and I have history of paying the previous one without issue. I've always been IMPECCABLE with everything credit related.

I applied a week ago.  As mentioned was going to use a bonus I had just rec'd (which was 3 times the amount owed on the credit card) to clear it but was then shown the light in avoiding having my bonus taxed by sticking it in a pension pot. I can easily clear the £4.8k over the next 5 - 6 months from surplus income but wanted to do it efficiently especially as I was instructed to do by switching to a zero interest transfer. It seems so obvious !!!

I feel more like appealing out of principle rather than anything else.

martinbainbridge1975

RWhitts said:

Brie said:

No.  Pre-approved is meaningless.  It's a robot making a guess whereas an application should have more detail that means that Barclaycard's making a more informed decision.  And unfortunately they are sticklers for ensuring they like you and only allow you to have the absolute minimum of credit.   By your line "I didn't want to borrow anymore" it sounds like there was more than the £4800 on the one card that they were looking at.  Might be your mortgage, overdraft, phone contract, who knows.  But the total of that made you a bad risk in their opinion. 

So what next?  How long do you have before you have to pay this money off?  When did you apply for the Bcard?  

Your credit rating is fairly irrelevant but the income versus overall debt will be the deciding factors.  That along with how desperate you might look if you do several card applications in rapid succession - hence you might need to wait a while. 

When you do get round to it - MBNA has had generous limits which haven't been lowered (unlike some cards) and almost always have 0% deals.

Hi there.I have only ever had one credit card for say 20 years and this is the first time I have used it for borrowing, and only for 3 months so far and the amount outstanding is still at the amount I asked to transfer. My wife and I bring in more income in a year than the total left on our mortgage, our outgoings are low, I have NEVER been declined on anything in all my 54 years and the only other major thing showing on my report is a PCP deal for a car which is adequately covered by my employment car allowance, and I have history of paying the previous one without issue. I've always been IMPECCABLE with everything credit related.

I applied a week ago.  As mentioned was going to use a bonus I had just rec'd (which was 3 times the amount owed on the credit card) to clear it but was then shown the light in avoiding having my bonus taxed by sticking it in a pension pot. I can easily clear the £4.8k over the next 5 - 6 months from surplus income but wanted to do it efficiently especially as I was instructed to do by switching to a zero interest transfer. It seems so obvious !!!

I feel more like appealing out of principle rather than anything else.

Nothing to lose in asking the question why declined.

Natwest are flaky with me, I bank with them never use my overdraft and yet they wont give me a credit card.  

RWhitts

Bit weird but I have just checked my credit score and it states that "yesterday it soared from 606 to 965" - and that includes showing  the search by Barclaycard a few days ago.

I am appealing in writing just now and am detailing all my positive reasons and will now include this recent major jump in my rating.

At the very least I am now very interested in what they come back with.

CliveOfIndia

RWhitts said:

Bit weird but I have just checked my credit score and it states that "yesterday it soared from 606 to 965" - and that includes showing  the search by Barclaycard a few days ago.

I am appealing in writing just now and am detailing all my positive reasons and will now include this recent major jump in my rating.

At the very least I am now very interested in what they come back with.

Proof, if any were needed, that the score you see on your report is utterly meaningless.  It's not even seen by a lender.

A lender will perform internal scoring on you - that is, they churn your data through their algorithms and the computer generates an internal score.  Since lending criteria will be different for every lender, and are confidential and commercially sensitive, no-one will ever know how they score you, or the reasons behind the score they give you.

As I say, they can't even see the score generated by the CRA, so there's little point in adding that to your appeal.

It's entirely your choice, of course - but I suspect appealing their decision will be simply a waste of your time and effort.  Far simpler to just apply elsewhere - it appears that you just don't fit BC's preferred customer profile.

MalMonroe

Hi, I agree with CliveOfIndia, above, appealing is a waste of time. And different lenders have different lending criteria. 

They'll probably just respond something like "you didn't match our credit scoring criteria" and tell you to go and check all your credit reports. All lenders have their own scoring criteria and it's not the same as the ones the credit report agencies allocate. Those scores are only seen by we, the consumers. (As menioned by others).

I tried appealing once to Capital One (and I'd been a good customer of theirs previously, with no defaults or anything). They said, in advance, that I was 100% approved. So I applied and then they turned me down. Blow me down!  I reported them to the FOS because they'd also sent me a signed credit agreement. The most Capital One agreed to do was to remove the hard search from my credit file. So I accepted that and moved on. 

Now I have a Virgin card and a Tesco one and a Sainsbury's one and my own bank one as well. And I use them all responsibly and all (except the 0% purchase one from my own bank) are paid off, in full, every month, if I've used them that month of course.

What you say here "I have only ever had one credit card for say 20 years and this is the first time I have used it for borrowing and only for 3 months so far " could have been one reason for their rejection, since you appear to be an unknown quantity for lenders. But I'm just guessing at that. 

Don't despair, you're obviously very good at managing money but you've not used a lot of credit in the past. 

Barclays and HSBC, I have found, are the hardest ones to break through, so I do applaud CliveOfIndia,.who managed it with HSBC. They rejected me years ago for a student loan and it's been once bitten, twice shy of them for me. So embarrassing. Most of my cohort were accepted and I wasn't. 

Onwards and upwards. Who needs them? Plenty more fish in the sea. And banks as well. Except that I read yesterday that a lot of them are closing down. Oh well.

Hope some of this is helpful, entirely my own experiences and thoughts. Good luck. 

MorningcoffeeIV

RWhitts said:

I am appealing in writing just now and am detailing all my positive reasons and will now include this recent major jump in my rating..

Well, at least you'll give them a good laugh. 

It'll be like including your horoscope saying that you were supposed to have a lucky day.