Santander debit card cashback ending

flaneurs_lobster

FlossieFlump said:

I had the notification on my Edge current account about them cutting back on the money back. I only get just over the £3 a month fee back anyway but every little helps as they say. So I applied for the Edge Credit Card which is at the moment offering 2% back for the first year then dropping to 1% for following years. 

Filled in the forms, submitted and got instantly turned down. Queried it and was told to check my credit score. They even supplied the 3 credit companies they use to check your status. So I checked on all 3 and on all 3 my credit rating was exactly as I thought it would be, 'Excellent'.  So phoned Santander to ask why I'd been instantly refused and they couldn't answer. They just said maybe it's because I have too much credit available to me ??? 

I have a Santander basic account credit card I have never used, a Barclay Platinum 0% for 23 months on purchases/transfer etc which I've only recently received, and an ASDA everyday credit card which iI I only  recently received this month to use purely for my ASDA groceries and ASDA fuel. None of those two have outstanding balances. 

But there's a fair amount (I'm guessing) of credit headroom available there plus a couple of recent hard searches for new cards. Maybe the algorithms just decided that there were enough recent credit applications and they want to see a few more months of usage before adding more. 

Nasqueron

FlossieFlump said:

I had the notification on my Edge current account about them cutting back on the money back. I only get just over the £3 a month fee back anyway but every little helps as they say. So I applied for the Edge Credit Card which is at the moment offering 2% back for the first year then dropping to 1% for following years. 

Filled in the forms, submitted and got instantly turned down. Queried it and was told to check my credit score. They even supplied the 3 credit companies they use to check your status. So I checked on all 3 and on all 3 my credit rating was exactly as I thought it would be, 'Excellent'.  So phoned Santander to ask why I'd been instantly refused and they couldn't answer. They just said maybe it's because I have too much credit available to me ??? 

I have a Santander basic account credit card I have never used, a Barclay Platinum 0% for 23 months on purchases/transfer etc which I've only recently received, and an ASDA everyday credit card which iI I only  recently received this month to use purely for my ASDA groceries and ASDA fuel. None of those two have outstanding balances. 

Santander told me I an appeal or apply in 30 days to see if I will be accepted.  I've been with Santander donkeys years, before it was Santander in fact when it was Alliance and Leicester Building Society, so a good many years and I'm really disappointed with them. In fact I was really angry to get turned down. I don't have any outstanding credit anywhere, in fact I dont have any credit of any kind. 

Miffed off to be honest and once my Edge Saver is up in a few months time I'll be leaving Santander and finding a better bank. 

Unfortunately you don't have an "excellent" credit rating, or even any rating at all. The numbers you see are not used by lenders, they don't even see them. Lenders take the data from your file and run it through their own systems and the computer makes a decision. Customer service agents are told to refer to your credit score as a simple explanation rather than explaining the detailed process which many won't understand. As you can see from your own experience, the rating the agency gives you is completely useless as a real "excellent" score would logically have no issue getting credit. Most likely you have a few hard searches recently, too much or too little credit, limited credit history etc

GeoffTF

Nasqueron said:

Customer service agents are told to refer to your credit score as a simple explanation rather than explaining the detailed process which many won't understand. 

The customer service agent is not likely to know the details of the computer assessment, which will be commercially sensitive. Banks try to be better than the competition at assessing whether a borrower is likely to default.

Nasqueron

GeoffTF said:

Nasqueron said:

Customer service agents are told to refer to your credit score as a simple explanation rather than explaining the detailed process which many won't understand. 

The customer service agent is not likely to know the details of the computer assessment, which will be commercially sensitive. Banks try to be better than the competition at assessing whether a borrower is likely to default.

Sure but again, the gimmick score you see is meaningless and staff are told to refer to that to keep it simple