Failed eligibility check for credit card

marmitemum

I’m 64, part-time self-employed for my husband’s business, earning £3k per year. For the last 40 years I’ve been an additional cardholder on my husband’s Mastercard. We have £60k in savings. Up till now, we’ve received paper bills and I pay it each month (it’s me who does the bill paying). Mastercard have now switched to paperless and so only my husband can see the balance on his online banking (Lloyds). So we have the situation whereby he’s having to remember when we need to pay it rather than me. And it’s hard to get into that routine, it would be a whole lot easier if I had my own credit card especially as it’s mostly me who uses it. But when I did the eligibility calculator on my Lloyds banking app it decided I wasn’t eligible. I’ve never had any debts. We’ve never had any debts.  We had a joint mortgage which we paid off about 6 years ago. All I want is something for occasional use, say up to £500 per month, though a credit limit of a couple of thousand would be nice for emergencies. Am I stuck? Or are there any credit card companies who may be more likely to accept me? Is it my low income that was likely to be the issue?

ukindexinvestor

contact your bank or whoever you got the mortgage from 

lr1277

Many card companies require a minimum income to get a card. 3k may not meet that threshold.

This may or may not help.
My mum stayed at home and had no earnings till her pension started at 60. My mum was a supplementary card holder on dad’s Nationwide credit card. At some point Nationwide wrote to her and offered her a card in her own name, which she accepted. I don’t know if they made the offer before or after she started getting her pension. But the pension might be a red herring as it is paid into NatWest. Dad’s salary and pension were also paid into NatWest.
In case anyone is wondering, my dad reduced his state pension entitlement officially, so mum could have a pension.
You could try Nationwide. Should you decide to visit a branch to discuss and you are not aware, some of them are open part-time. Check beforehand.
HTH

Edited to add:
Mum and dad had both sole and joint current accounts with Nationwide and NatWest. They had accounts with many banks probably since the 90’s.
You say you had no debts other than your mortgage. That would make for a thin credit file. I am not sure about this but it is possible your mortgage will drop off your credit file after 6 years of being paid off.
Having a pay monthly mobile phone contract will help your credit file. 

You could get a free credit report from the likes of MSE Credit club to give you a peek at your credit file. Disregard the number shown, no credit card company takes notice of it as they have their own calculations. Also don’t use the eligibility checker offered. As you have done already use the eligibility checker on the card provider’s site.
My MSE Credit club report showed I have had credit with my water company but not my previous mobile phone provider (Virgin) was not listed. I have credit with my current mobile phone provider O2.
On my credit report it showed 0 debt for my current accounts. Which I later found out is good as it means I am not using my overdraft.

cymruchris

marmitemum said:

I’m 64, part-time self-employed for my husband’s business, earning £3k per year. For the last 40 years I’ve been an additional cardholder on my husband’s Mastercard. We have £60k in savings. Up till now, we’ve received paper bills and I pay it each month (it’s me who does the bill paying). Mastercard have now switched to paperless and so only my husband can see the balance on his online banking (Lloyds). So we have the situation whereby he’s having to remember when we need to pay it rather than me. And it’s hard to get into that routine, it would be a whole lot easier if I had my own credit card especially as it’s mostly me who uses it. But when I did the eligibility calculator on my Lloyds banking app it decided I wasn’t eligible. I’ve never had any debts. We’ve never had any debts.  We had a joint mortgage which we paid off about 6 years ago. All I want is something for occasional use, say up to £500 per month, though a credit limit of a couple of thousand would be nice for emergencies. Am I stuck? Or are there any credit card companies who may be more likely to accept me? Is it my low income that was likely to be the issue?

It's likely a combination of low salary and limited 'credit history' - as much as you have the savings (nobody sees that apart from you and your own bank - and isn't taken into account for credit card applications, as you could blow the lot on the horses tomorrow - even though you likely won't) - with your mortgage being paid off about 6 years ago will probably mean it's fallen off your credit report, so you have little history for new card providers to judge you against.

For the existing card - would it be worth setting a direct debit to take the full balance in case you forget to look at his app?

In terms of a new card - you could try a variety of eligibility checkers as they won't harm your 'history'.

If you're intending to use it as a 'do your shopping and pay it back in full each month' - then interest rates aren't really important.

There are card providers that have fairly high APR's but can be easier to get - try the direct websites of :

Capital One

Vanquis

Aqua

They are the ones that are potentially more likely to say yes. They might offer a low credit limit to start - but with good management will usually raise them further down the line.

Will you be getting a pension anytime soon? If you're continuing working and getting the pension, that'll boost your 'income' which might help get a card if you don't succeed right now...

lr1277

A few other points.
Every so often when mum logs into web banking they try and move her onto online statements. She resolutely checks the box to stay with paper statements. Perhaps your husband could check if he has the option to turn paper statements back on again?
If you need sight of your husband’s finances and Lloyds won’t provide paper statements, one way forward is to get an LPA from your husband, assuming he is agreeable. Theoretically once you have this and it is registered with his bank, they should give you access to his accounts and statements with your own login. Potentially you might need to register one LPA for his bank accounts and another LPA for his credit card, even though they might be with the same bank. You need to find out how Lloyds handles LPA’s.
As an added note LPA’s can be useful if one of you loses mental or physical capacity and the other has to deal with their spouse’s finances. A financial LPA can be used before the donor has lost capacity as long as you have agreement for the action you are taking.

marmitemum

ukindexinvestor said:

contact your bank or whoever you got the mortgage from 

That would be Lloyds whose eligibility test I failed! 

marmitemum

cymruchris said:

marmitemum said:

I’m 64, part-time self-employed for my husband’s business, earning £3k per year. For the last 40 years I’ve been an additional cardholder on my husband’s Mastercard. We have £60k in savings. Up till now, we’ve received paper bills and I pay it each month (it’s me who does the bill paying). Mastercard have now switched to paperless and so only my husband can see the balance on his online banking (Lloyds). So we have the situation whereby he’s having to remember when we need to pay it rather than me. And it’s hard to get into that routine, it would be a whole lot easier if I had my own credit card especially as it’s mostly me who uses it. But when I did the eligibility calculator on my Lloyds banking app it decided I wasn’t eligible. I’ve never had any debts. We’ve never had any debts.  We had a joint mortgage which we paid off about 6 years ago. All I want is something for occasional use, say up to £500 per month, though a credit limit of a couple of thousand would be nice for emergencies. Am I stuck? Or are there any credit card companies who may be more likely to accept me? Is it my low income that was likely to be the issue?

It's likely a combination of low salary and limited 'credit history' - as much as you have the savings (nobody sees that apart from you and your own bank - and isn't taken into account for credit card applications, as you could blow the lot on the horses tomorrow - even though you likely won't) - with your mortgage being paid off about 6 years ago will probably mean it's fallen off your credit report, so you have little history for new card providers to judge you against.

For the existing card - would it be worth setting a direct debit to take the full balance in case you forget to look at his app?

In terms of a new card - you could try a variety of eligibility checkers as they won't harm your 'history'.

If you're intending to use it as a 'do your shopping and pay it back in full each month' - then interest rates aren't really important.

There are card providers that have fairly high APR's but can be easier to get - try the direct websites of :

Capital One

Vanquis

Aqua

They are the ones that are potentially more likely to say yes. They might offer a low credit limit to start - but with good management will usually raise them further down the line.

Will you be getting a pension anytime soon? If you're continuing working and getting the pension, that'll boost your 'income' which might help get a card if you don't succeed right now...

Regarding a pension, only my State Pension in two years’ time. I only worked full-time until we had our children and after that just did part-ti,e self-employed stuff. Yes we could set up a DD, but I’d like my own card both for now and also if anything happens to my husband. I’ll check out the providers that you mentioned, thank you! It just seems silly that my own bank, with whom I’ve had an account for almost 50 years, won’t help me! 

lr1277

Should you get a card from whchever povider, you may get a credit limit less than you had hoped for.

See this thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6499190/ive-got-a-credit-card-with-a-limit-of-50

If this does happen, keep using the card responsibily and you maybe offered a higher credit limit, or after a few months, you could ask for a higher limit.

I did try using the URL button to post that link, but it didn't want to appear for me, so have posted the URL.

fatbelly

I think the first thing is to have a look at your credit filrs. You may find no entries at all, and that would be the problem.

Check all 3 and don't pay for any service.

In fact, go through quidco/ topcashback and they might pay you

Nasqueron

I genuinely cannot see why you cannot just setup the card to take the balance in full every month by DD? That would immediately solve all your problems, not least because there is no danger of missed payments e.g. if a reference number is missed/entered incorrectly etc. A DD removes all worries from this scenario and worst case, the DD guarantee covers you if it's not taken.

That said, credit cards are done based on routine - your statement is always the same date (except if it falls on a weekend or bank holiday) and the due date is always the same date (again unless weekend/bank holiday).

My Lloyds one for example always takes the payment on the 15th, it always generates the statement on the 19th, there is no ambiguity or worry about when I need to check if (if I was paying manually) - and the statement tells you the due date regardless.

Even if you insist on paying them manually, you could simply put a reminder on the calendar or phone to get the statement after the date it's generated and you would know the amount and due date from that (or print it off if you're really desperate to keep the paper industry going!)

marmitemum

Nasqueron said:

I genuinely cannot see why you cannot just setup the card to take the balance in full every month by DD? That would immediately solve all your problems, not least because there is no danger of missed payments e.g. if a reference number is missed/entered incorrectly etc. A DD removes all worries from this scenario and worst case, the DD guarantee covers you if it's not taken.

That said, credit cards are done based on routine - your statement is always the same date (except if it falls on a weekend or bank holiday) and the due date is always the same date (again unless weekend/bank holiday).

My Lloyds one for example always takes the payment on the 15th, it always generates the statement on the 19th, there is no ambiguity or worry about when I need to check if (if I was paying manually) - and the statement tells you the due date regardless.

Even if you insist on paying them manually, you could simply put a reminder on the calendar or phone to get the statement after the date it's generated and you would know the amount and due date from that (or print it off if you're really desperate to keep the paper industry going!)

We could but I’d like my own card. It may not always be both of us here.