MSE said I was preapproved but Barclayard declined

windyhorace

I'm just curious if this has ever happened to anyone else and if so what the outcome was.

Basically as per title.  I went through with an "MSE preapproved" 0% balance transfer card application with Barclaycard.  Some time later I received a letter from Barclaycard saying my application had been rejected, with no reason given, but inviting me to write to a particular address should I wish to know more.

Curious, I wrote to said address asking pretty much: "Ok, fine, so what gives?"

...No response.

About six weeks later I write again, saying more or less: "It'd be courteous of you to at least acknowledge my letter, here's another copy for you in case you didn't receive it.  Could I now have a reply, please?"

...No response.

Final attempt about six weeks after that, I sent another copy by recorded delivery.

...No response.

Ok, so in a perhaps futile attempt to preempt the ignoramuses who (in my limited historical experience) will gleefully pile on to any new MSE thread with incorrect/irrelevant/obvious and needlessly aggressive replies:

• I know that Barclaycard is under no obligation to offer me credit, regardless of what any third party might have said about my preapproval status. That is not what this post is about.
  
  
• I understand that I have no customer relationship with Barclaycard and I know they are under no obligation to respond to my letters querying their decision.  That said: if you invite people to write to you, it seems only common courtesy to respond, especially if the decision you have issued because of a hard search could affect someone's credit rating.
  
  
• I don't care massively about this and it doesn't affect me all that much financially.  Several months down the line my credit rating is unaffected.  I'm not crying about not getting a credit card.  I'm actually quite glad that I appear to have dodged a bullet.  Knowing what I know now about their responsiveness I'm very pleased not to be a Barclaycard customer.
  
  
• I am simply curious if this has ever happened to anyone else and if so what the outcome was.

Finally: this seems redundant given all of the above, but it's worth bearing in mind that, when MSE tells you that you are preapproved, it seems it doesn't necessarily mean that you are actually preapproved.

Emmia

Checkers like that offered by MSE aren't always accurate. You're always better off using them as a guide to identify who might give you a card, and then using the card issuers own checker before applying.

flaneurs_lobster

windyhorace said:

Ok, so in a perhaps futile attempt to preempt the ignoramuses who (in my limited historical experience) will gleefully pile on to any new MSE thread with incorrect/irrelevant/obvious and needlessly aggressive replies:

This? In your third ever post? 

You OK, Hon?

TheSpectator

windyhorace said:

• I am simply curious if this has ever happened to anyone else and if so what the outcome was.

Probably has happened to loads of people, any response from Barclaybard would probably be a generic 'after checking your credit file' blah blah.

For someone that doesn't massively care you sure put a lot of effort into that.

windyhorace

flaneurs_lobster said:

This? In your third ever post? 

It's not actually my third ever post.  I just haven't been back here in so long that older stuff is long gone.  And yes thanks, I'm grand

windyhorace

TheSpectator said:

For someone that doesn't massively care you sure put a lot of effort into that.

I mean.... It took 5 minutes to post over a cup of tea.  I'm not one of those people who needs to move their lips when they're typing.  Or are you talking about the fact I wrote to Barclaycard 3x?  If the latter, then I did absolutely care at the time, since I believed a search and rejection could have had an effect on on my ability to get credit elsewhere.  In the end it didn't, so now I'm more curious than bothered.

CliveOfIndia

Any indication given by a third-party eligibility checker is, at best, a very rough guess.  Firstly, they don't perform a hard search, so only have access to a small subset of your credit data.  Secondly, and more importantly, each lender will have different criteria and a different target customer-base.  Since those criteria are confidential and commercially-sensitive, no-one outside of their risk-management team will know what those criteria are.  This is also the reason why they won't tell you exactly why you failed their checks - all they'll say is that you don't fit their criteria.

So the generic eligibility checkers will basically use what limited information they have on you, and cross-match it to the basic criteria that are commonly used by most lenders.  But since they can't know a lender's specific, detailed criteria, it's essentially an educated guess.

zedonk

Sometimes when you go to apply at the bank's website, they ask slightly different questions to the MSE checker or they define income in a different way etc. and that can lead to a different outcome. 

I'm pretty sure that's what happened to me with Barclaycard. I was 100% preapproved, but when I applied they said they couldn't give me an answer straight away. I then heard nothing for weeks until a Barclaycard with a large credit limit landed on my doorstep. By that time I had already balance transferred to someone else. 

windyhorace

Thanks @CliveOfIndia

I understand entirely that each lender has its own criteria, etc. etc. - that's absolutely fine.

I suppose then the question (for me, at least) becomes why is a trusted org like MSE using the phrase 'pre-approved' without making it very clear, as it almost always does when it comes to potentially misleading wording and practices everywhere else, that it doesn't necessarily mean what the average person might think it does.

I know they're not the only ones who do this - it's been forty-odd years since I first encountered the phrase on my parents' junk mail in the 1980's, in this case coming directly from lenders.  Perhaps it's that childish first impression and inference of an absolute meaning that affected my interpretation of it later.

CliveOfIndia

windyhorace said:

For someone that doesn't massively care you sure put a lot of effort into that.

a search and rejection could have had an effect on on my ability to get credit elsewhere.

Any hard searches will be visible to any lender who looks at your file.  However, the result of the search - whether accepted or rejected - is not recorded.

In and of itself, a hard search will have a miniscule impact on how another lender views you.  It's only when you have a lot of searches in a short space of time that it starts to become an issue.  Although the result of an application is not recorded, it's not unreasonable to infer that lots of searches means you've been declined quite a few times, and that you're desperate for credit.

MSE_JC

Hi @windyhorace

Thanks for the feedback. We've passed it along to the relevant team.

The FAQs on the MSE Credit Card Eligibility Calculator state:

"However, pre-approval is not a cast-iron guarantee you’ll get the card. In exceptional circumstances you could be declined for other reasons – e.g. after identity and fraud checks. Lenders may also do final checks on details not on your credit report, to check you’re not classed as ‘vulnerable’ and that it’s okay for them to lend to you. For example, if you’ve a recent history of significant gambling, this could cause an application ‘pre-approved’ after a check of your credit report to actually be turned down."