Difficulties with HSBC and credit score in general

Desmond_Hume

Overdraft is three times your monthly take home? Mine is £200. For when I make a small blunder and miscalculate one month. You should have a cash reserve for emergencies; not a large overdraft. 

EnPointe

noclaimnotnoblame said:

<snip>

How can I fix this? Bear in mind I have lived in the UK my whole life and have only moved once 30 years ago. I use my credit card fairly regularly but it has always been paid off before any interest has been needed to be paid. I do not have a phone contract as I use my phone very little and find pay as you go works a lot better for me.

It feels like HSBC has completely hidden me from the credit system.

the  unfortunate for you  reality is that  you have chosen to hide yourself from the Credit  System 

you state you  always pay  your  credit card off as though it was a charge card  - ironically you haven;t  bult a history of   on time   payments  in the way  those looking for credit worthyness do ...   

you state you do not have a Phone Contract  

do you have  any other credit arrangements ?

are you  registered to Vote ?

have you  attempted to  obtain a line of credit with another provider ? 

EnPointe

noclaimnotnoblame said:

My available overdraft is ~3x my monthly income and 6x my credit card limit, it has never been used and HSBC has increased its size on their own without me requesting it.

Just to be clear though, I am not looking to borrow at this point in time, I mainly want to be able to use credit card protection on larger purchases and still pay them off completely without monthly payments.

I also want to try and sort out my credit rating now I know there are issues in case I do need to borrow in the future.

I will investigate opening an account with a different bank as it does look like it is likely to help with these two issues.

it also apears that you total  line of credit from HSBC is  approaching 4* your  monthly income  / approaching   a third of your annual income ...  it  may be the case that HSBC feels  that they are sufficiently exposed to riusk  in relation of odffering lines of credit to you.   

as others have suggested reducing  your overdraft to a  fairly nominal amount  ( e.g. £100-250) may change things  with HSBC 

  

molerat

EnPointe said:

noclaimnotnoblame said:

<snip>

How can I fix this? Bear in mind I have lived in the UK my whole life and have only moved once 30 years ago. I use my credit card fairly regularly but it has always been paid off before any interest has been needed to be paid. I do not have a phone contract as I use my phone very little and find pay as you go works a lot better for me.

It feels like HSBC has completely hidden me from the credit system.

the  unfortunate for you  reality is that  you have chosen to hide yourself from the Credit  System 

you state you  always pay  your  credit card off as though it was a charge card  - ironically you haven;t  bult a history of   on time   payments  in the way  those looking for credit worthyness do ...   

you state you do not have a Phone Contract  

do you have  any other credit arrangements ?

are you  registered to Vote ?

have you  attempted to  obtain a line of credit with another provider ? 

I don't believe OP is saying that at all, they state it is paid automatically every month so would assume an in full DD.

HSBC transfers the payments from my main account to my credit card automatically a month after each payment unless I choose otherwise

I believe the whole problem here is that these are very old accounts not being reported by HSBC. 

OP, you need to get some more credit from other sources.

Nasqueron

noclaimnotnoblame said:

The credit reports I have seen so far do not mention having access to any credit, the soft credit checks from HSBC/car insurance etc show up but HSBC is not mentioned anywhere else, it does not list me as having a credit card at all across multiple credit reports.

As far as I can tell, the credit reports show me as having no money, no bank account, no outgoings, etc. It's all just blank.

Credit reports don't see income or outgoings (unless you tell them your salary which they can't prove obviously or if you give them access via open banking). Some old bank accounts aren't reported either. I'd echo the above, stop showing loyalty to HSBC, at the very least use the MSE checker and apply for a card somewhere else and use the same direct debit payment process for that and build up a history. A sim only phone contract is no bad thing either, it's often cheaper than PAYG too 

noclaimnotnoblame

I had to send a complaint to Experian to be able to speak to a person, but it seems data protection laws were created in 1998 and accounts created before then are blocked unless authorised (mine is from before this).

Apparently I need to visit a HSBC branch to get the required forms (not available online) to do this (a pain because they keep closing branches down).

I have considered moving from PAYG, but it would double/triple my yearly bill, I barely use my phone for calls/mobile data at all.

I will keep this updated if there is further information, it might take a while though.