How much does your credit score affect getting a Santander Edge current account?

blagoslovljena

I’ve been doing a lot of switching lately with a burner account so my credit score’s dropped to the lowest rung of ‘good’ on Experian.

My sole income outside my husband’s salary is tax credits and child benefit, so I’m probably not an attractive customer based on money coming in.

I have a couple of joint savings accounts with Santander but would like to open an individual Edge current account to give me access to the Edge 7% savings account.

Does anyone know how likely I am to get accepted for the current account? Are Santander quite strict these days? I don’t want another hard check on my file if I have no chance of an account.

DullGreyGuy

0.000%

No bank/lender sees your credit score, it's a fake construct of the CRAs and associated companies marketing departments to separate people from their money (originally) and data (more recently). 

Banks see your credit history and apply their own logic to it to make their own decision. 

Slinky

If you're a joint account holder already I'd have thought you are a known quantity with Santander. Given your existing relationship with them, are there any reasons you could think of that would make them reject you?

 

blagoslovljena

Slinky said:

If you're a joint account holder already I'd have thought you are a known quantity with Santander. Given your existing relationship with them, are there any reasons you could think of that would make them reject you?

 

Nothing that I can think of. But I was planning to go through Top Cashback for their £25 rather than going direct through the Santander app, so didn’t know if that would affect the application.

Probably just being paranoid! 🤣

blagoslovljena

DullGreyGuy said:

0.000%

No bank/lender sees your credit score, it's a fake construct of the CRAs and associated companies marketing departments to separate people from their money (originally) and data (more recently). 

Banks see your credit history and apply their own logic to it to make their own decision. 

Well, I switched in October, December and February, and applied for car insurance in October too…

None of the accounts had/have overdrafts and I paid the car insurance upfront so no credit there either.

FreeFallerSaver

blagoslovljena said:

DullGreyGuy said:

0.000%

No bank/lender sees your credit score, it's a fake construct of the CRAs and associated companies marketing departments to separate people from their money (originally) and data (more recently). 

Banks see your credit history and apply their own logic to it to make their own decision. 

Well, I switched in October, December and February, and applied for car insurance in October too…

None of the accounts had/have overdrafts and I paid the car insurance upfront so no credit there either.

The point that @DullGreyGuy is making is less about 'credit', it's about your credit file. Whether you take an overdraft or not, some banks will still do a hard check when you open an account (as you've already sussed out), which is what will show on your credit file. But again, the score (and that's ANY score, remember there are three CRAs that sell you that nonsense figure, all of which are different), is only ever seen by you. Lenders check what's on your credit file and make their own mind up about you - and you'll never know what commercial logic they choose to use when they do so. If Santander already have a relationship with you, they might not even do a hard check on you. Either way, just ignore whatever Experian rung you might be on.

Edit: spelling

blagoslovljena

FreeFallerSaver said:

blagoslovljena said:

DullGreyGuy said:

0.000%

No bank/lender sees your credit score, it's a fake construct of the CRAs and associated companies marketing departments to separate people from their money (originally) and data (more recently). 

Banks see your credit history and apply their own logic to it to make their own decision. 

Well, I switched in October, December and February, and applied for car insurance in October too…

None of the accounts had/have overdrafts and I paid the car insurance upfront so no credit there either.

The point that @DullGreyGuy is making is less about 'credit', it's about your credit file. Whether you take an overdraft or not, some banks will still do a hard check when you open an account (as you've already sussed out), which is what will show on your credit file. But again, the score (and that's ANY score, remember there are three CRAs that sell you that nonsense figure, all of which are different), is only ever seen by you. Lenders check what's on your credit file and make their own mind up about you - and you'll never know what commercial logic they choose to use when they do so. If Santander already have a relationship with you, they might not even do a hard check on you. Either way, just ignore whatever Experian rung you might be on.

Edit: spelling

I’ve just applied and thankfully got accepted. 😅

Thank you for your advice. It will be interesting to see if they did a hard credit check, but the website took a minute to ‘think about it’ before accepting me so I’m half expecting a hard check in there.