MSE said I was preapproved but Barclayard declined

TheSpectator

windyhorace said:

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.

At the side of the checker "what does pre-approved mean"? - lots of words then "pre-approval is not a cast iron guarantee"

Maybe not as transparent as it could be nor is the fact get paid if you go through the link and are approved.

End of the days it's a money making exercise.

windyhorace

MSE_JC said:

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."

Thanks JC.  Yeah, I think the reason for my confusion over the surprise rejection is that (even though I hadn't read the FAQs and didn't realise preapproved didn't mean exactly what I thought it did) I don't to the best of my knowledge fall into any category I can think of that would have created an exceptional circumstance such as those you describe, e.g. no bad history, no address change in > 10y, on electoral roll, established credit elsewhere, good utilisation ratio, no gambling history etc. etc.  As others have stated, each lender obviously has its own criteria and for whatever reason I didn't fit Barclays', which is totally understandable, however providing a specific adress for enquiries then serially ignoring correspondence to that address is just really bad form.  They'd be better off saying "no correspondence will be entered into" which would have saved me a lot of time.

As I say, from this experience I am glad to not now be a customer.

Nasqueron

windyhorace said:

MSE_JC said:

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."

Thanks JC.  Yeah, I think the reason for my confusion over the surprise rejection is that (even though I hadn't read the FAQs and didn't realise preapproved didn't mean exactly what I thought it did) I don't to the best of my knowledge fall into any category I can think of that would have created an exceptional circumstance such as those you describe, e.g. no bad history, no address change in > 10y, on electoral roll, established credit elsewhere, good utilisation ratio, no gambling history etc. etc.  As others have stated, each lender obviously has its own criteria and for whatever reason I didn't fit Barclays', which is totally understandable, however providing a specific adress for enquiries then serially ignoring correspondence to that address is just really bad form.  They'd be better off saying "no correspondence will be entered into" which would have saved me a lot of time.

As I say, from this experience I am glad to not now be a customer.

I had a 100% pre-approved one from Virgin, ended up going to their manual review and eventually rejected, only credit I ever got rejected from and one I didn't really need. Got an HSBC one a few months later with a good limit via TopCashBack with a bonus, just one of those things. I tend to now do an eligibility checker, check on the bank directly and then see what cashback is available and go that way 

Olinda99

To me, pre-approved means you will get the card unless eg fraud is detected and if it doesn't mean that then MSE should not be using that phrase

Instead, MSE should direct you towards the eligibility checkers on each card's website that they (MSE) detect you have the highest chance of being accepted.

stewartwilliams

I've had 3 out of 4 pre-approved applications go through successfully in the last couple of years.
(All through Clearscore)

Only one that I had issues with was Zopa.  They wanted payslips, but decided they weren't enough, and then wanted access to my bank account to check things, but I stopped the application at that point and got a hard search for it.

Last successful one with NatWest got me a decent limit and no foreign transaction charges.
Just clearing the back up one at present as interest is a lot higher, and it charges for non £ spends.

born_again

Olinda99 said:

To me, pre-approved means you will get the card unless eg fraud is detected and if it doesn't mean that then MSE should not be using that phrase

Instead, MSE should direct you towards the eligibility checkers on each card's website that they (MSE) detect you have the highest chance of being accepted.

Pre-Approved & Approved are 2 different things. Especially when a 3rd party is involved (MSE) 

As far as MSE go pre-approved means you have passed the 1st part of the lenders checking. As MSE are not the lender they can not Approve any credit. That can only be done by the lender.

So MSE are directing you to sites where you have the best chance of getting a card.

You need to read PRE as Before.

So example PRE Flight 
The bit before you fly.

So PRE Approved.
The bit before you get Approved 👍

Olinda99

phrase it how you want but google 'preapproved meaning' and it boils down to 'agreed' and not 'maybe agreed' !

born_again

Olinda99 said:

phrase it how you want but google 'preapproved meaning' and it boils down to 'agreed' and not 'maybe agreed' !

the act of accepting, allowing, or officially agreeing to something before something else happens,
or an example of this:

Pre-approval will be obtained from your insurance company before surgery.

He could not recall if he had given preapproval for the trip.

Prospective homebuyers often require pre-approvals to show sellers they are likely to qualify for financing.

At no point did I mention "Maybe"

Olinda99

hi

The 'maybe' did not refer to you but to the MSE eligibility checker process

The term pre-approved means that you've been approved in advance - all you have to do is ask or apply and you'll get it

I suspect this is what happens if you do a soft check on the credit card's own site for example if you do a check on Lloyds own site and it says you're pre-approved then if you apply you're pretty certain to get the card

This is not the case on the MSC eligibility checker site where pre-approved seems to mean you might or maybe get the card - and this is the wrong use of the term pre-approved

MSE should phrase it such as 'the best chance you have is Halifax follower by Santander' and not use pre-appproved

This is all in the context of the original op post

callum9999

CliveOfIndia said:

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.

That seems incredibly unlikely.

Individuals at MSE obviously won't have access to the commercially sensitive exact criteria, but it's rather trivial to have the MSE checker interface with the credit providers system and get a response back from that. 

Although not perfect, the results are too accurate/consistent to be "at best, very rough guesses".