MSE Eligibility Calculator

Pat38493

Just curious - any ideas why I would be denied "pre approved" access to some of the best buy credit cards e.g. the Natwest 0% purchase card on the MSE list in the MSE calculator?

I am not that bothered as there are plenty that say I am 100% pre-approved.  I was just a bit surprised that Natwest would block me since I have a pristine credit history, no debts other than a mortgage for about 10% of the home value, household income in 6 figures etc.  I would be surprised for any CC company to refuse me a card.

MorningcoffeeIV

Either because

a) you're not meeting their criteria for one of a hundred reasons or because
b) the MSE checker is pretty ropey.

MikeJXE

Pat38493 said:

Just curious - any ideas why I would be denied "pre approved" access to some of the best buy credit cards e.g. the Natwest 0% purchase card on the MSE list in the MSE calculator?

I am not that bothered as there are plenty that say I am 100% pre-approved.  I was just a bit surprised that Natwest would block me since I have a pristine credit history, no debts other than a mortgage for about 10% of the home value, household income in 6 figures etc.  I would be surprised for any CC company to refuse me a card.

So would I for the same reasons, although I have a NatWest account they refused me a credit card also 

cymruchris

Pat38493 said:

Just curious - any ideas why I would be denied "pre approved" access to some of the best buy credit cards e.g. the Natwest 0% purchase card on the MSE list in the MSE calculator?

I am not that bothered as there are plenty that say I am 100% pre-approved.  I was just a bit surprised that Natwest would block me since I have a pristine credit history, no debts other than a mortgage for about 10% of the home value, household income in 6 figures etc.  I would be surprised for any CC company to refuse me a card.

Comparison sites like MSE use generally available data from your credit file to make a best guess using their own criteria as to what they think the card provider will say. The banks that issue cards use the same data, but against their own internal scoring system. So doing an eligibility checker on a lender's direct website is more accurate than using a comparison site. If you already have a Natwest current account (you might not) you can look in their app where they'll tell you yay or nay without applying and what your limit would be.

daivid

Check direct with NatWest if you can be bothered, the MSE checker can be way out. As others have said there can be a myriad of reasons, we could guess all day but will never know. I think you need to accept there will always be card providers not interested in your business, just like when getting car insurance and some providers quote 10 or 20 times more than the best offers. 

FarmGirl78

You seen to misunderstand the point of a credit record. Its not designed to be a list of what big bad debts a person has, but designed to be a record of well individuals manage to repay their debts/credit accounts. If the only debt you have is a mortgage then your file is going to be a pretty thin one. There's not enough information in it to help companies make an informed decision on how well you handle credit. If you haven't been borrowing money then there's no much proof you'd be trustworthy and reliable in repaying it.

If you want to improve your chances of getting accepted, or getting accepted with a bigger limit then you need to get more stuff on recording on your credit file. Mobile phone contract? Credit building card, or one of the ones you're 100% pre-appoved for, and just put a few tanks of petrol on there each month, paying it off in full when your statement arrives.

Once you start to actually build up a record of successfully repaying more debts then hopefully your acceptance hit rate will increase and so will the limits you get.

Pat38493

FarmGirl78 said:

You seen to misunderstand the point of a credit record. Its not designed to be a list of what big bad debts a person has, but designed to be a record of well individuals manage to repay their debts/credit accounts. If the only debt you have is a mortgage then your file is going to be a pretty thin one. There's not enough information in it to help companies make an informed decision on how well you handle credit. If you haven't been borrowing money then there's no much proof you'd be trustworthy and reliable in repaying it.

If you want to improve your chances of getting accepted, or getting accepted with a bigger limit then you need to get more stuff on recording on your credit file. Mobile phone contract? Credit building card, or one of the ones you're 100% pre-appoved for, and just put a few tanks of petrol on there each month, paying it off in full when your statement arrives.

Once you start to actually build up a record of successfully repaying more debts then hopefully your acceptance hit rate will increase and so will the limits you get.

Yes but for many years I have always used an Nationwide credit card for as much of my monthly spend as possible and pay it off each month, so this should be a pretty good indicator.  In the last year I have cycled more than £20K through it.

I do also have an mbna card with a 14K credit limit that I never use.  I think I originally got it when they were affiliated with United airlines and I wanted to boost my airmiles with them back in the day, but that was years ago and I never bothered to cancel the card as I didn't have any reason to do so (till now maybe).

To be honest up until I started reading articles on this site, I assumed that cashback and reward points and so on where more of a gimmick than something of any real use, so I didn't think I was losing out by just using my Nationwide card all the time.  I also found in the past that a lot of these schemes require you to use certain suppliers or buy certain items - if I don't actually want or need those items I end up just wasting the benefit.

PixelPound

MikeJXE said:

Pat38493 said:

Just curious - any ideas why I would be denied "pre approved" access to some of the best buy credit cards e.g. the Natwest 0% purchase card on the MSE list in the MSE calculator?

I am not that bothered as there are plenty that say I am 100% pre-approved.  I was just a bit surprised that Natwest would block me since I have a pristine credit history, no debts other than a mortgage for about 10% of the home value, household income in 6 figures etc.  I would be surprised for any CC company to refuse me a card.

So would I for the same reasons, although I have a NatWest account they refused me a credit card also 

Probably because no debts other than a mortgage. So where's the current ability to manage a credit card and if given 0% not max it out and be unable to pay back.

Alternatively if you have lots of unused credit and carry zero balance on every thing, where will they make their money. Often can be refused for too much unused credit available.