Refused a Credit Card but impeccable credit record on Experian

KStar2

I have never defaulted on a payment for anything, have paid off mortgages, loans and all other bills, my credit card record is exemplary.

Yet I have now been refused 2 applications for credit cards on line. Might this because I am now retired and my pension is below £15k a year?

Im mystified. Any help or advice greatly appreciated. 

EthicsGradient

I would think the forums more directly concerned with this would have better knowledge:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/credit-file-ratings
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/credit-cards

MattMattMattUK

KStar2 said:

I have never defaulted on a payment for anything, have paid off mortgages, loans and all other bills, my credit card record is exemplary.

Yet I have now been refused 2 applications for credit cards on line. Might this because I am now retired and my pension is below £15k a year?

Im mystified. Any help or advice greatly appreciated. 

Probably based on affordability. Low income, likely already have other credit cards, lenders will be unlikely to see a good reason for additional borrowing capacity. 

CliveOfIndia

I'd tend to agree with the previous poster.  It depends to a large extent on what the combined limit is of your existing credit cards.  But if you already have - or an additional card would give you - potential access to credit that's very high in relation to your income, this could well be a reason.

This kind of leads on to the question of why you want another card - is it because you want better rewards, cashback, that kind of thing?  If so, one option might be to close some of your existing accounts then re-apply in a few month's time.  The danger with that, of course, is that you may still find you're not accepted, and find yourself with less flexibility in terms of which cards you can use.

It would also be worth trying some eligibility checks (not full applications, initially) with a few other providers.  Each lender will have different criteria and a different target customer base.  So it may be that one lender will accept you where another one rejects you.

born_again

Income, V available credit. Then there is affordability as well.

KStar2

Thanks for comments to-date. Much appreciated.

It's a very cold world of customer service these days. Horrid. 

eskbanker

KStar2 said:

It's a very cold world of customer service these days. Horrid. 

Probably best to recognise and understand that you're hoping to borrow someone else's money, and that they're operating in a highly-regulated industry where lenders have been subject to all sorts of action as a result of insufficient controls over who they lend to, so don't take it as a personal slight....

kimwp

As far as I understand it, they use assumptions about what you spend in daily life - i imagine 15k is pretty close to their assumption, so there wouldn't be much left from that to pay them back.