Eligibility checks - third party vs bank's website

CliveOfIndia

Just a useful nugget of information to confirm what's often said on these boards.

I've got a credit card where the 0% rate is due to end soon.  I have the money stashed away to pay it, so no problem, but I thought I'd see if I could transfer it somewhere else just to carry on earning a few pennies interest on my savings.

I'm not wanting to pay a BT fee (no point spending money needlessly), but saw the Natwest 0% zero fee card promoted on MSE, thought I'd give it a punt.

Tried the MSE eligibility tool - zero chance of being accepted.  Tried going via Uswitch - also zero chance.

Went on to Natwest's own website - application accepted straight away, with a massive credit limit that's far more than I actually need or would ever use.

So yep - always use the bank's own eligibility checker - which, as I know, is always recommended anyway.

It does make me wonder why these third-party checkers are so far off the mark though.  If they said I had a "fair" chance or a "poor" chance, then fair enough.  But they all said I had zero chance.

DullGreyGuy

CliveOfIndia said:

So yep - always use the bank's own eligibility checker - which, as I know, is always recommended anyway.

It does make me wonder why these third-party checkers are so far off the mark though.  If they said I had a "fair" chance or a "poor" chance, then fair enough.  But they all said I had zero chance.

Go sit down and try writing the rules for yourself of how to come to a percentage chance for say AmEx, NatWest and Lloyds for example. Which is going to be most comfortable with standing balances? Are they all the same with standing balance but on 0% -v- interest incurring?

The banks themselves know their criteria so its easy for them to do it... third parties are trying to guess what one bank likes but another bank isn't so keen on and certainly in some cases with no input from the third party. You may also question if the percentage chance of acceptance is in anyway influenced by the amount of commission the site will receive from each of the lenders. 

born_again

Add  in banks criteria change all the time.
Marketing decide they need to boost credit card sales, so internal criteria is relaxed. Once they get to the required %, they will change again. 

steven141

There is also the case where one of those sites like ClearScore or Credit Karma offer a better APR for the same credit card than what is shown directly with the bank so it’s always best to check all options first. 

DullGreyGuy

steven141 said:

There is also the case where one of those sites like ClearScore or Credit Karma offer a better APR for the same credit card than what is shown directly with the bank so it’s always best to check all options first. 

Dont use Karma but yes do find it unusual with ClearScore and their "guaranteed" rates which as you say can be better than the lenders own soft checker and the guarantee to date has come through so clearly for at least those lenders there is a lot more sharing going on.

Most other sites dont have a "guarantee" and it may as well be a random number generator.