Are credit card companies ageist/anti pensioners?

FoxVanilla

I am retired, with state and private pension, plus income from a part time job and a small company I run with my husband.  Yet, with a credit score of above 980 and a very comfortable joint income... most of which is guaranteed up until death,  I am not able to get a balance transfer credit card. On the application forms you can only click on one 'status' - eg retired or self employed or part time.  I've never had a problem before, the only difference is I am older... ie 66. Companies won't say why you are declined... surely we have a right to know why we are declined - in case it can be remedied?

TadleyBaggie

I’m in my 70’s, never been refused a CC other account. 

Brie

I would have thought that if card companies were allowed to be so blatantly ageist they would also have the right to stop all our credit when we hit SP age.  They don't because they know there's money to be made from us.  

That said it might frighten them a bit if you say you are retired.  But so could self employed or part time.  

I think you might have hit that ceiling on your credit limit.  If you want a BT it's because you can't or don't want to pay off another card in full.  So your income (from wherever) must be sufficient to service not just the old cards but the new one as well.  We all know that a BT is to pay off another card but having done that there's no reason to think that you won't run the first card all the way up to the top again so basically ending up with twice as much debt.

That's what any bank/card company will be looking at.  Not at your credit score as that is essentially meaningless and isn't on your credit history.

born_again

FoxVanilla said:

I am retired, with state and private pension, plus income from a part time job and a small company I run with my husband.  Yet, with a credit score of above 980 and a very comfortable joint income... most of which is guaranteed up until death,  I am not able to get a balance transfer credit card. On the application forms you can only click on one 'status' - eg retired or self employed or part time.  I've never had a problem before, the only difference is I am older... ie 66. Companies won't say why you are declined... surely we have a right to know why we are declined - in case it can be remedied?

Nope. Business decision.

Just take it that you are not meeting their profile they are lending too at the moment.

Could be that they feel that the amount of available/used credit you have is in excess of the your income.

Inbetweeners

And your 980 'score' means absolutely nothing.

p00hsticks

FoxVanilla said:

Companies won't say why you are declined... surely we have a right to know why we are declined - in case it can be remedied?

I suspect that companies would say that it is a commercial business decision on their part and they have the right to keep the specific criteria they use to themselves.

A customer always has the option of looking at both CIFAS and the main three credit bureaus to check their credit history (as opposed to their meaningless credit score) to see if there are any potential red flags there, and challenging and getting corrected any erroneous information reported there.

DE_612183

I would suggest that CC companies like all lenders apply risk factors to applications.

The risk of an over 70 dying and the estate not being able to pay off the debt is probably much greater than a 25 year old.

It's not ageism - it's pragmatism.

Mark_d

The credit card company wants to make money from you and not take much risk.  If you were to borrow (aka balance transfer) £30,000 and then you died in a few months, the credit card company would have lost a lot of money. They need to make commercial decisions. 
If you have a strong track record of paying your balance in full each month, they you may well be accepted for a top cashback credit card.
Personally I am a lot way off retirement. By the time I retire I will have been a customer of Barclaycard and Amex for over 30 years.  I have no reason to think they would let me down once I become a pensioner.

blue.peter

FoxVanilla said:

I am retired, with state and private pension, plus income from a part time job and a small company I run with my husband.  Yet, with a credit score of above 980 and a very comfortable joint income... most of which is guaranteed up until death,  I am not able to get a balance transfer credit card. On the application forms you can only click on one 'status' - eg retired or self employed or part time.  I've never had a problem before, the only difference is I am older... ie 66. Companies won't say why you are declined... surely we have a right to know why we are declined - in case it can be remedied?

I'm of a similar age to you (66 in November), been retired several years, living solely on my private pensions. The only time I've ever been declined for a credit card was in 2010, a couple of months after I'd moved house. No problems since. Applied for two credit cards this year (one of them less than three weeks ago), accepted for both. So I rather doubt if the reason for your having been declined is your age or employment status. Having said that, I've never applied for a balance transfer card.

No, as others have said, you're not entitled to know why you've been declined. It's a purely commercial decision. It's possible that you simply don't fit the profile of customer that that particular card issuer wants at the moment, but that another provider would be perfectly happy to take you on.

born_again

Mark_d said:

The credit card company wants to make money from you and not take much risk.  If you were to borrow (aka balance transfer) £30,000 and then you died in a few months, the credit card company would have lost a lot of money. They need to make commercial decisions. 
If you have a strong track record of paying your balance in full each month, they you may well be accepted for a top cashback credit card.
Personally I am a lot way off retirement. By the time I retire I will have been a customer of Barclaycard and Amex for over 30 years.  I have no reason to think they would let me down once I become a pensioner.

Oh you have a lot to learn, there is no such thing these days in any financial service company.

Loyalty left the building years ago. If it ever was there....

etienneg

No, my experience of credit card companies is not that they are ageist or anti-pensioners. Of the six cards I have at the moment, three were obtained after my retirement. One of those is the one with the highest credit limit. Then again, I don't carry a balance on any of them ...

Why do you want to transfer a balance? Why not just pay it off using the "very comfortable income" you have?