Experians Conflict of Interests

Nasqueron

991GTS said:

Nasqueron said:

Experian get a fee for referring you and you getting accepted - they won't waste time sending over customers they don't think would qualify as BA would no doubt stop giving them fees if they kept sending more and more over and wasting time and resources with everyone getting rejected.

BA rejected you as you didn't suit their target market, either appeal for a manual review or forget it and move on. They rejected you based on the data on their CRA (Experian in this case)

The score you see is meaningless, no lender ever sees it, they look only at the data on your file and base their decision on that

I never said Experian referred me to BA. As for BA's target market, they must be pretty inept then as I am a company director, in their executive club and fly multiple times a year, usually in club.

As for scores, I mention it as it is supposed to be based on your credit history. While I accept its not what a lender uses but equally if you 'score' is '2' instead of '999' that should indicate something!

You said in your initial post there is a conflict of interest - I am simply explaining to you how Experian act - there is no conflict of interest - if someone applies through them, they get a fee if you are accepted (not if you are declined). There is literally no benefit at all for Experian if you apply for a BA branded card and don't get it - they get paid by BA/AmEx to provide the data for the application.

Please don't take this the wrong way but your high flying status is meaningless to AmEx, you may believe you are an elite of society but the credit check said you don't meet their criteria so you got rejected.

Your score is literally meaningless, 2 or 999 means nothing at all, no lenders ever see it. If you read Experian's site, their FAQs cover this, the wording is to the effect "Your credit score gives you an idea of how companies may view you when you apply for credit" (my emphasis) - note how they are very clear it is, at best, an educated guess. A bankrupt with a clean slate will get a 999 score but no mainstream lender would touch them with a 10 foot pole. 

As I said - you can manually appeal it or move on

MattMattMattUK

991GTS said:

As for scores, I mention it as it is supposed to be based on your credit history. While I accept its not what a lender uses but equally if you 'score' is '2' instead of '999' that should indicate something!

Bankrupt people can have scores at maximum, millionaires can have very low scores because they never need to borrow, the score is meaningless. The scores are also designed to get people to take out additional products so that the CRA earns commission, the things that they advise are often things that would not be viewed beneficially by lenders. Credit scores are a marketing exercise, nothing more. 

991GTS said:

£1200 limit is what the card product is advertised as offering. Not up to. If Amex increase later that is then. From day 1 if successful that is the limit.

As others have said, £1,200 is not the credit limit, I very much doubt Amex offer anyone that low, if they thought someone was that un-creditworthy they would not offer them a card at all.

The £1,200 is however the representative example that they are required by the FCA to show people as part of the application process for comparison purposes. 

https://www.handbook.fca.org.uk/handbook/CONC/3/5.html

JamesPeter

991GTS said:

Today I decided to apply for a British Airways Amex Card. The purpose of this was to shift my business spending and acrue points and also flight reward vouchers.

991GTS said I am a company director,

I wonder if the decline had something to do with the possibility of the OP putting business spending as a company director onto a personal credit card application, as opposed to obtaining a Business BA Amex/credit card?

MattMattMattUK

JamesPeter said:

991GTS said:

Today I decided to apply for a British Airways Amex Card. The purpose of this was to shift my business spending and acrue points and also flight reward vouchers.

991GTS said I am a company director,

I wonder if the decline had something to do with the possibility of the OP putting business spending as a company director onto a personal credit card application, as opposed to obtaining a Business BA Amex/credit card?

I am a company director, I have a personal Amex card, they give me one initially with a £5k limit, then after six months upped it to £12k and then after a year to £15k, almost every company director I know has an Amex card and from what I know plenty of those are personal cards. 

DullGreyGuy

JamesPeter said:

991GTS said:

Today I decided to apply for a British Airways Amex Card. The purpose of this was to shift my business spending and acrue points and also flight reward vouchers.

991GTS said I am a company director,

I wonder if the decline had something to do with the possibility of the OP putting business spending as a company director onto a personal credit card application, as opposed to obtaining a Business BA Amex/credit card?

I've been both an employee and a director and put business travel expenses on my personal AmEx card... at one point was paying for myself and 2 consultants to be making fortnightly trips to NYC in Business (technically Upper Class as it was VS) so spending £10k plus a month on my personal card as an employee. 

They don't ask what you will use the card for and directors are not unique in having expenses. If you have a fee incurring card then it can make sense to have a Business card so the fees are a company expense. However there are some differences in the benefits between the personal, business and corporate versions of cards; for example the Business Platinum doesn't give access to the Eurostar First Lounge whereas the personal one does.