Bizarre Experience with Vanquis Bank

EskimoLogix

Hi there!

Having a bit of an odd time with Vanquis. I was approved for a card with a high limit, 0% offer which is nice considering they are subprime. 

I was approved, card & PIN sent in the post, took around a week and a half and both arrived together. I activated the card with the Vanquis app, all done and registered. 

After doing a tiny transaction on Google Play to make sure its all working and setup, I got an SMS saying "Vanquis requires you to complete a Mitek request", I had my son help me with this because its all a bit confusing and wasn't sure it was genuine. We had issues, so called them up and they let us send everything to them directly, its been 2 weeks nearly and the app is blocked now too, received a letter saying their routine review (literally 5 minutes after activating the thing), means they suspect the card was applied for in my name by someone else. Obviously that is not the case and only we can receive our own post, I don't live in a shared accomodation, so that in itself makes no sense because only me could have accessed the card number to do anything on the account.

Does anyone else have experience with them in this regard, and if it looks like they're wasting my time and will simply close it regardless. A really strange company, I understand security and all but to approve someone, let them make a transaction and then start asking for documents is beyond me, shouldn't it be the other way round?  

I wouldn't mind at all, simply close it if needs be, but they had the audacity to report the account to my credit file, which means lower score and lenders less likely to approve me now by going elsewhere, would I be entitled for the entire account to be wiped if they refuse to remove the bar, another thing that defies logic, we think its someone else in your name but we'll send debt collections if you don't pay the balance and we've published to your records. 

MyRealNameToo

EskimoLogix said:

Hi there!

Having a bit of an odd time with Vanquis. I was approved for a card with a high limit, 0% offer which is nice considering they are subprime. 

I was approved, card & PIN sent in the post, took around a week and a half and both arrived together. I activated the card with the Vanquis app, all done and registered. 

After doing a tiny transaction on Google Play to make sure its all working and setup, I got an SMS saying "Vanquis requires you to complete a Mitek request", I had my son help me with this because its all a bit confusing and wasn't sure it was genuine. We had issues, so called them up and they let us send everything to them directly, its been 2 weeks nearly and the app is blocked now too, received a letter saying their routine review (literally 5 minutes after activating the thing), means they suspect the card was applied for in my name by someone else. Obviously that is not the case and only we can receive our own post, I don't live in a shared accomodation, so that in itself makes no sense because only me could have accessed the card number to do anything on the account.

Does anyone else have experience with them in this regard, and if it looks like they're wasting my time and will simply close it regardless. A really strange company, I understand security and all but to approve someone, let them make a transaction and then start asking for documents is beyond me, shouldn't it be the other way round?  

I wouldn't mind at all, simply close it if needs be, but they had the audacity to report the account to my credit file, which means lower score and lenders less likely to approve me now by going elsewhere, would I be entitled for the entire account to be wiped if they refuse to remove the bar, another thing that defies logic, we think its someone else in your name but we'll send debt collections if you don't pay the balance and we've published to your records. 

Credit scores arent seen by lenders and are a construct of the marketing department. Each lender simply gets your credit history from the CRAs and applies their own logic to decide if they wish to lend or not. 

You applied for credit, they setup an account and if they close the account then that is all a matter of fact and so should be reported. That in itself won't say why the account was closed but with it all being in good standing (ie no late payments etc) is not going to have a material impact. 

A CIFAS loading would be a different matter but from what you say they are considering that you are the victim not the perpetrator so a victim marker would slow down future applications as they will normally trigger manual checks but they are relatively short lived compared to being accused of fraud. 

Who knows what has triggered them to consider you may be a victim of fraud, checking the CRAs would be sensible. Hopefully it shouldn't be too difficult to confirm you are who you say you are and that you did apply for the account yourself. May take a bit of time as stopping fraud rather than unfreezing accounts takes priority but should just be a case of providing evidence and waiting. 

EskimoLogix

MyRealNameToo said:

EskimoLogix said:

Hi there!

Having a bit of an odd time with Vanquis. I was approved for a card with a high limit, 0% offer which is nice considering they are subprime. 

I was approved, card & PIN sent in the post, took around a week and a half and both arrived together. I activated the card with the Vanquis app, all done and registered. 

After doing a tiny transaction on Google Play to make sure its all working and setup, I got an SMS saying "Vanquis requires you to complete a Mitek request", I had my son help me with this because its all a bit confusing and wasn't sure it was genuine. We had issues, so called them up and they let us send everything to them directly, its been 2 weeks nearly and the app is blocked now too, received a letter saying their routine review (literally 5 minutes after activating the thing), means they suspect the card was applied for in my name by someone else. Obviously that is not the case and only we can receive our own post, I don't live in a shared accomodation, so that in itself makes no sense because only me could have accessed the card number to do anything on the account.

Does anyone else have experience with them in this regard, and if it looks like they're wasting my time and will simply close it regardless. A really strange company, I understand security and all but to approve someone, let them make a transaction and then start asking for documents is beyond me, shouldn't it be the other way round?  

I wouldn't mind at all, simply close it if needs be, but they had the audacity to report the account to my credit file, which means lower score and lenders less likely to approve me now by going elsewhere, would I be entitled for the entire account to be wiped if they refuse to remove the bar, another thing that defies logic, we think its someone else in your name but we'll send debt collections if you don't pay the balance and we've published to your records. 

Credit scores arent seen by lenders and are a construct of the marketing department. Each lender simply gets your credit history from the CRAs and applies their own logic to decide if they wish to lend or not. 

You applied for credit, they setup an account and if they close the account then that is all a matter of fact and so should be reported. That in itself won't say why the account was closed but with it all being in good standing (ie no late payments etc) is not going to have a material impact. 

A CIFAS loading would be a different matter but from what you say they are considering that you are the victim not the perpetrator so a victim marker would slow down future applications as they will normally trigger manual checks but they are relatively short lived compared to being accused of fraud. 

Who knows what has triggered them to consider you may be a victim of fraud, checking the CRAs would be sensible. Hopefully it shouldn't be too difficult to confirm you are who you say you are and that you did apply for the account yourself. May take a bit of time as stopping fraud rather than unfreezing accounts takes priority but should just be a case of providing evidence and waiting. 

Yeah, I mean I am not arguing if that is how it works and can't be erased but it is quite unfair from on my part, open an account, wait till the deed is done to start asking questions and then if they close the account, I have to bear the brunt of having that recorded rather than asking the questions first then opening the account, my application was not instant it took a few days to get the approval so what makes it worse is that a human made the decision to open it.

[Deleted User]

It's poor practice but you can either comply/negotiate (potentially asking for compensation once done) or allow them to close the account & pay off whatever is owed and move on to another provider. 

Personally, unless you've got some great deal then I'd opt for the latter. 

MyRealNameToo

EskimoLogix said:

MyRealNameToo said:

EskimoLogix said:

Hi there!

Having a bit of an odd time with Vanquis. I was approved for a card with a high limit, 0% offer which is nice considering they are subprime. 

I was approved, card & PIN sent in the post, took around a week and a half and both arrived together. I activated the card with the Vanquis app, all done and registered. 

After doing a tiny transaction on Google Play to make sure its all working and setup, I got an SMS saying "Vanquis requires you to complete a Mitek request", I had my son help me with this because its all a bit confusing and wasn't sure it was genuine. We had issues, so called them up and they let us send everything to them directly, its been 2 weeks nearly and the app is blocked now too, received a letter saying their routine review (literally 5 minutes after activating the thing), means they suspect the card was applied for in my name by someone else. Obviously that is not the case and only we can receive our own post, I don't live in a shared accomodation, so that in itself makes no sense because only me could have accessed the card number to do anything on the account.

Does anyone else have experience with them in this regard, and if it looks like they're wasting my time and will simply close it regardless. A really strange company, I understand security and all but to approve someone, let them make a transaction and then start asking for documents is beyond me, shouldn't it be the other way round?  

I wouldn't mind at all, simply close it if needs be, but they had the audacity to report the account to my credit file, which means lower score and lenders less likely to approve me now by going elsewhere, would I be entitled for the entire account to be wiped if they refuse to remove the bar, another thing that defies logic, we think its someone else in your name but we'll send debt collections if you don't pay the balance and we've published to your records. 

Credit scores arent seen by lenders and are a construct of the marketing department. Each lender simply gets your credit history from the CRAs and applies their own logic to decide if they wish to lend or not. 

You applied for credit, they setup an account and if they close the account then that is all a matter of fact and so should be reported. That in itself won't say why the account was closed but with it all being in good standing (ie no late payments etc) is not going to have a material impact. 

A CIFAS loading would be a different matter but from what you say they are considering that you are the victim not the perpetrator so a victim marker would slow down future applications as they will normally trigger manual checks but they are relatively short lived compared to being accused of fraud. 

Who knows what has triggered them to consider you may be a victim of fraud, checking the CRAs would be sensible. Hopefully it shouldn't be too difficult to confirm you are who you say you are and that you did apply for the account yourself. May take a bit of time as stopping fraud rather than unfreezing accounts takes priority but should just be a case of providing evidence and waiting. 

Yeah, I mean I am not arguing if that is how it works and can't be erased but it is quite unfair from on my part, open an account, wait till the deed is done to start asking questions and then if they close the account, I have to bear the brunt of having that recorded rather than asking the questions first then opening the account, my application was not instant it took a few days to get the approval so what makes it worse is that a human made the decision to open it.

There is no "brunt" of having an account closed in good standing on your records, indeed there are school of thought that lenders like seeing people who've seen an agreement through to the end etc. 

We can only speculate as to what they found that caused them to review afterwards... it could be something to do with what your first attempted transaction was which obviously can't be deemed before the card is issued.