Refused Loan

Francophile66

I have applied for an interest free loan. My application was refused by Barclays. When I contacted the relevant department the service agent was unable  (or perhaps unwilling?) to give me the reason for refusal. He said it was NOT age related. Am I not entitled to know the reason for refusal?

Ayr_Rage

No, any bank can refuse and never have to give the reason.

Since when have Barclays been offering interest free loans and for what purpose?

Hoenir

The service agent you spoke to would have no idea. Applications for credit can fail for any number of reasons. There's a lot of boxes that need to be ticked. 

elsien

I’m also interested in the interest-free aspect of it, as their website isn’t showing any such deals at the moment. 

TadleyBaggie

Ayr_Rage said:

No, any bank can refuse and never have to give the reason.

Since when have Barclays been offering interest free loans and for what purpose?

Barclays used to be the bank used by Apple for interest free purchases, used them a few times.

DullGreyGuy

Francophile66 said:

I have applied for an interest free loan. My application was refused by Barclays. When I contacted the relevant department the service agent was unable  (or perhaps unwilling?) to give me the reason for refusal. He said it was NOT age related. Am I not entitled to know the reason for refusal?

No, it's a commercial decision which they are free to make. They'll just tell you to check your history with the credit reference agencies.

Ayr_Rage said:

Since when have Barclays been offering interest free loans and for what purpose?

Its Barclays Partner Finance, they offer in store credit for companies like Apple, loans on cars etc. 

elsien said:

I’m also interested in the interest-free aspect of it, as their website isn’t showing any such deals at the moment. 

Need to look at the right website, though BPF website is designed for retailers looking for a partner to provide finance on them sofas or TVs etc. The merchant can choose if the loans are interest free or interest incurring, obviously impacts what they get paid etc.

CliveOfIndia

Francophile66 said:

When I contacted the relevant department the service agent was unable  (or perhaps unwilling?) to give me the reason for refusal.

The service agent would have no idea why your application was refused.  Quite simply you do not meet their lending criteria for whatever reason - it really is a case of "computer says no".  The algorithms which determine your eligibility are unique to each lender, and are also confidential and commercially sensitive, so no lender would tell you the precise reason why you were declined.

Francophile66 said:

He said it was NOT age related.

That will be correct - it would be illegal for them to discriminate based on age alone.

Francophile66 said:

Am I not entitled to know the reason for refusal?

No, a lender is not obliged to tell you why you've been refused, other than you don't match their acceptance criteria.

Also, do bear in mind that credit is a privilege, not a right.  No lender is under any obligation whatsoever to offer credit to anyone.

It may be worth checking all 3 of your credit files just to make sure there are no negative markers on them.  Ignore the meaningless score, just make sure that all the data are factually correct.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/check-free-credit-report/