Hard checks when applying for credit card

martinbainbridge1975

as above, ignore your credit score its meaningless it is your history, which if limited may be a factor in declined.

lenders are being more picky at the moment with who is accepted, their appetites for risk may vary.  my score is very high and my history spotless but the offers are crap on cards at the moment.  virgin historically I have found to be picky

martinbainbridge1975

Chris_N35 said:

Nebulous2 said:

It may seem odd for someone with quite a financial history, but generally people have to start with a credit builder card.

Prime cards with perks are often fussy. 

I get that, its the fact i was 100% approved and gurateeed to get one !

Chris_N35 said:

Nebulous2 said:

It may seem odd for someone with quite a financial history, but generally people have to start with a credit builder card.

Prime cards with perks are often fussy. 

I get that, its the fact i was 100% approved and gurateeed to get one !

Chris_N35 said:

Nebulous2 said:

It may seem odd for someone with quite a financial history, but generally people have to start with a credit builder card.

Prime cards with perks are often fussy. 

I get that, its the fact i was 100% approved and gurateeed to get one !

have you called them and asked why 

spinningsheep

When you show "pre approved" this isn't 100% guaranteed. They base this on algorithms that suggest that based on the info the pre approval site has eg clearscore, credit karma, providing you pass the lenders final checks, you would be approved. It looks as though you haven't passed those final checks, and Virgin money definitely won't tell you why, that's sensitive info, nor do they HAVE to tell you. Chalk it up and move on. As others have alluded to, the fact you are financially solvent, may go against you. No credit card use, no history of day to day credit use (I don't mean the mortgage) you may have to work up from a credit builder card. 

paul_c123

There must be something in the data you gave, in between the 100% pre-approval (I assume they ask for at least something of you, they're not giving it away like sweeties) stage and the full application.

Also, you applied 4 times - why? - with the same info, or tweaking the data to try get an approval? 

Might I take a wild stab in the dark - what's your employment status and what did you put as gross income? (Don't need to answer publically, but obviously worth a think about). It might be something there which led to the decline. Also, if you mis-state your income compared to other credit applications, you will be pinged for this by the National Hunter database search.

born_again

Or a mis match of name/address details compared to CRA.

MrFrugalFever

As with all lenders, even an eligibility check saying you’re guaranteed is not exactly 100% as there will always be some small print saying something along the lines of *subject to final checks. This is a lenders get out clause. A soft eligibility check doesn’t ask all the questions a full application does, nor does it establish a full view of your credit history.

Virgin would have made 4 hard searches and recorded them 4 times because it is a computer system doing the work. You cannot and will not get these removed.

I would abstain from applying for any credit for at least 3 months, ideally 6.

Most hard searches will drop off after 12 months, I think Experian is 24 months.

Always use the lenders own eligibility checker as opposed to a CRA broker such as Clearscore / Credit Karma etc and when doing so (including any full applications) ensure your data entry is consistent.