Rejected for Bank account upgrade - HSBC

stitchmaker85

I’ll try to keep this as short as possible, but it’s an infuriating situation through no fault of our own.

Went into HSBC to upgrade my husbands bank account, and the application was rejected. The only reason they can give is due to a ‘recent missed payment’ but they refused to go into further details.

The only thing we could attribute to this was the fact that back at the start of September, Virgin Money credit card tried to take the full amount of my husbands credit card balance from his bank account, when the DD should have been set up to take the minimum (and was showing as such on the app), and consequently the DD failed. Virgin admitted at the time that this was their system error, and my husband was assured that no mark would be left on his credit file (as we had already paid a big chunk off in the preceding weeks, so payments had been met and cleared for the month, nothing was actually missed and manual payments were made well on time).

We make a point of keeping up with credit scores, have accounts with Credit Karma and Equifax, and his credit history and records on these both show PERFECT history, no missed payments, no defaults and he has a rating of ‘excellent’ on both, so I do believe Virgin when they say they have not marked it as a missed payment (as it is not).

Here’s the icing on the cake, HSBC advised us that as he had now been rejected for a bank account upgrade by them, this would be viewed extremely negatively and that we should not apply for any sort of further credit in the next 3-6 months as he is highly likely to be rejected. 

Virgin maintain that they have not put any sort of marker on his credit file so we are absolutely baffled as to why he has been rejected. 

Anyone have any sort of advice on what to do in this strange situation?

CliveOfIndia

Am I right in thinking that the VM DD came out of the HSBC account?  If so, that may well explain things.  HSBC will have an internal record of the bounced DD on their own systems, but no adverse marker was recorded on your credit files by VM (and you've confirmed this yourself on all 3 of your credit files?)

So as far as it goes, this will have no impact on your ability to obtain credit from another lender.  HSBC may decline to offer you credit, due to their internal records, but the bounced DD won't be visible to any other lender.

HSBC (indeed any lender) is free to refuse to do business with anyone if they choose, just so long as it's not due to a protected characteristic (race, disability, sexuality, etc. etc.).  If the bounced DD means they don't want to do business with you any more then so be it.

As a slight aside, you can ignore your "Excellent" credit rating and scores that the CRAs show you.  A lender looks purely at the data contained within your file and will make their own mind up.

stitchmaker85

Thanks for your response, yes the DD was bounced from the same HSBC account. 

So as far as the advice that the rejected account upgrade would have a very negative impact on his credit score, and not do anything else for a while, are HSBC talking rubbish there?

We have checked credit scores/history through Credit Karma (which i believe is Equifax and Transunion) and Experian.

Emmia

stitchmaker85 said:

Thanks for your response, yes the DD was bounced from the same HSBC account. 

So as far as the advice that the rejected account upgrade would have a very negative impact on his credit score, and not do anything else for a while, are HSBC talking rubbish there?

We have checked credit scores/history through Credit Karma (which i believe is Equifax and Transunion) and Experian.

I think HSBC are using the records THEY hold on you/your husband to make the decision, and not anything the CRAs may have. So all the reference agencies may show only good things, but HSBC has a mark against you, on the account you want to upgrade

Whether they'll report the rejection, for other lenders to see is the question...

MorningcoffeeIV

stitchmaker85 said:

We have checked credit scores/history through Credit Karma (which i believe is Equifax and Transunion) and Experian.

No.

Credit Karma is Transunion. Clearscore is Equifax.

Only check history, never scores.

Richard1212

When I first upgraded to NatWest Black Account, I had to meet stringent financial criteria such as having £100k sole income, £100k savings or investments with NWest or a mortgage with them of £500k or more. I assume HSBC use similar criteria for upgrading to a higher current account. Are HSBC being "diplomatic" ( though "diplomatic bank" is a huge oxymoron) and finding some minor excuse for turning down the application because your husband does not meet the financial criteria ? Just a thought, as I hadn't noticed this aspect mentioned in the thread so far, though I'm sure you took this on board before making the application-------+ I don't know how HSBC's criteria compare to NatWest.

stitchmaker85

Emmia said:

stitchmaker85 said:

Thanks for your response, yes the DD was bounced from the same HSBC account. 

So as far as the advice that the rejected account upgrade would have a very negative impact on his credit score, and not do anything else for a while, are HSBC talking rubbish there?

We have checked credit scores/history through Credit Karma (which i believe is Equifax and Transunion) and Experian.

I think HSBC are using the records THEY hold on you/your husband to make the decision, and not anything the CRAs may have. So all the reference agencies may show only good things, but HSBC has a mark against you, on the account you want to upgrade

Whether they'll report the rejection, for other lenders to see is the question...

If they do, will this show up on credit history and do you know if there is there any way that we can check this?

Thanks

MorningcoffeeIV

CRAs only hold the data reported to them, not data held solely by lenders.

stitchmaker85

MorningcoffeeIV said:

CRAs only hold the data reported to them, not data held solely by lenders.

Is the HSBC rejection something that would be reported/show up as an adverse note?

The search has appeared as a hard search on his credit history but nothing next to it to say whether it then passed or failed.

MorningcoffeeIV

Only searches are shown, not decisions.

Richard1212

Richard1212 said:

When I first upgraded to NatWest Black Account, I had to meet stringent financial criteria such as having £100k sole income, £100k savings or investments with NWest or a mortgage with them of £500k or more. I assume HSBC use similar criteria for upgrading to a higher current account. Are HSBC being "diplomatic" ( though "diplomatic bank" is a huge oxymoron) and finding some minor excuse for turning down the application because your husband does not meet the financial criteria ? Just a thought, as I hadn't noticed this aspect mentioned in the thread so far, though I'm sure you took this on board before making the application-------+ I don't know how HSBC's criteria compare to NatWest.

As nobody has followed up this point, I'd just like to add that I have googled HSBC's criteria for upgrading current accounts and they have similar financial criteria to the ones mentioned in my previous post that must be met, just like my NatWest higher grade account. Does your husband meet the financial criteria for an upgraded account please ?