eligibility checkers

martinbainbridge1975

Afternoon all

Has anybody ever known the eligibility checkers to be wrong?

Virgin money eligibility checker on their website suggests a decline, but if I look at experian offers it pre approves me for a virgin money card.

Is it me or is that a bit strange? thoughts / opinions welcomed

Currently have a tesco card but the 0 per cent offer expires in 4-5 weeks, so looking for a replacement.

MorningcoffeeIV

martinbainbridge1975 said:

Afternoon all

Has anybody ever known the eligibility checkers to be wrong?

Yes, they're widely known to be often wrong.


It's inevitable,given the loose criteria they use

Zaul22

I think Virgin and many other credit cards have exclusivity deals with the CRAs/Comparison sites so you will only get approved through them. I also get pre approved on those sites but not on the banks themselves, I think everybody does. 

cymruchris

Trust the bank/credit card providers own website. If they say decline, it'll likely decline. 

The comparison sites process data in a different way, they look at lots of customers that have applied in circumstances similar to yours to work out whether you have a good chance of success - the bank/credit card providers have their own internal scoring mechanism, looking at exactly what they do and don't want as a customer, and if it says you've failed, you've likely failed. 

Don't waste a hard search by trying through the comparison sites if the main provider website says no. 

Volcane

Also a pre-eligibility approval is still not a guarantee… I passed the eliglibility check for an RBS ( part of NatWest group) card ( even advised of a £6750 credit limit) but was then declined upon final checks. 

daivid

The aggregator eligibility checks e.g. MSE have been wrong for me a few times. Twice I've been successful with cards I had 0% chance of getting, a couple of times I've been rejected despite 80/90% chance of success (that’s not necessarily an error as if anything I have had far more success at 80%ish than I should have had…). I'm yet to be rejected after getting a decent indication of success from a lender's own check and I've never applied for a card when the eligibility was discouraging. Several times MSE's eligibility % and the provider's own have disagreed wildly.

The take home for me is use the aggregator sites to get an idea of what is available then (wherever possible) use the provider's own eligibility checker for any cards of interest (irrespective of initial eligibility indications).

martinbainbridge1975

daivid said:

The aggregator eligibility checks e.g. MSE have been wrong for me a few times. Twice I've been successful with cards I had 0% chance of getting, a couple of times I've been rejected despite 80/90% chance of success (that’s not necessarily an error as if anything I have had far more success at 80%ish than I should have had…). I'm yet to be rejected after getting a decent indication of success from a lender's own check and I've never applied for a card when the eligibility was discouraging. Several times MSE's eligibility % and the provider's own have disagreed wildly.

The take home for me is use the aggregator sites to get an idea of what is available then (wherever possible) use the provider's own eligibility checker for any cards of interest (irrespective of initial eligibility indications).

if i go direct to the site the checker says unlikely but if i go via experian and click more details on the lenders site it says pre approved, i have fired an application in waiting for confirmation of a decision, not applied for nothing in the past 12 months so not overly concerned about 1 decline if it were to happen

martinbainbridge1975

Volcane said:

Also a pre-eligibility approval is still not a guarantee… I passed the eliglibility check for an RBS ( part of NatWest group) card ( even advised of a £6750 credit limit) but was then declined upon final checks. 

I bank with them and they offer nothing favourable to me, may well move banks in due course

Volcane

martinbainbridge1975 said:

Volcane said:

Also a pre-eligibility approval is still not a guarantee… I passed the eliglibility check for an RBS ( part of NatWest group) card ( even advised of a £6750 credit limit) but was then declined upon final checks. 

I bank with them and they offer nothing favourable to me, may well move banks in due course

It’s the only time it’s happened to me with first passing the eligibility checks. I’ve had cases where I haven’t passed eligibility check so didn’t proceed to full application though.

martinbainbridge1975

Update on the above

Application was accepted but the limit offered is a bit of an insult,  virgin appear to be a company to avoid.

Sent an email in as 45 minute waiting time on the phone, waiting on a call back.  If the limit offered is final then they can keep the card, it would not be worth having.

Volcane

This just goes to show more inconsistency as I understand Virgin are generally known to be one of the more generous organisations in regards to credit limits ( in fact they give me my second highest limit of the cards I do have). I do appreciate every case is different though.