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Every credit card company is rejecting me, wth??

I have two credit cards already, one I've had and been an avid used of for over 6 years. I pay all my bills on time although granted in the first year i may have missed only one or two payments and yet i have bad credit rating?! i've been trying to apply for credit card from argos, john lewis, capital one, ocean, halifax, vanquis, marbles and ALL of them said i wasn't eligible! the only one i can apply for is the one i've already got - aqua. why on earth is this happening? is it a bad thing if you can't apply for more credit cards, will it come back to haunt me in the future? and what can i do to increase my credit score. or is it just a matter of waiting, sorry dumb question but they all keep saying they can't accept me just yet so does that mean i just have to wait or do i have to do something to increase my credit rating??

Reply 1

goggleyed

not certain if this is right but isn't low credit rating usually due to not paying off your bills in full or something?? cos i pay my bills months too but always pay a percentage because i want to pay it off slowly. as a result they told me my credit rating was low. i'm no expert but i think it has something to do with that

Reply 2

Grizwuld

"i've been trying to apply for credit card from argos, john lewis, capital one, ocean, halifax, vanquis, marble"

Not all of these are 'credit cards'; John Lewis and Argos are most likely store cards which are different.

You don't mention your age but you do say that you have been using one for six years so age is probably not a major issue. you also say that you pay off monthly payments on time. This is very good for you as a customer but very bad for the card company since they cannot charge you interest or penalty charges. It's not clear from what you write if you make the monthly payments on time or if you clear all the debt each month. In the latter case you do not use the card as a credit card but as a deferred payment card and therefore create no credit history.

It is your credit history that creates your credit score. As a consumer buys and pays off goods and services using credit that history is used to work out a credit score or rating. You lose points if you fail to repay or pay late. A few late payments won't ruin your credit rating and over time such blots mean very little. The exact calculations used are not made public.

If you are not using credit to buy stuff you will have no credit history on which to generate a rating. So based on what you have written this is probably the main reason for being declined. In addition of course if you are a student you will likely have little or no income - which is obviously a very important factor in the calculation.

There are two credit rating agencies in the UK (Equifax is one). You can contact these companies and get a copy of your credit history if you want - just google for details. They will charge you for this. If there is an error or mistake causing the block on your record you may be able to have this corrected.

Good Luck

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 3

Alfissti

Might be something to do with your income level vs existing debts.

The other thing to check is whether or not you appear on the electoral register at the address you listed on the application.

Reply 4

StriderHort

As a a few folk have said, it's likely down to existing debt levels. If you try and apply for many in a short space of time it starts automatically blocking you (Desperation is a red flag)

Like I've currently got 3, all regretfully near maxed....i'm making all the payments ect, but if i tried to apply for more/another card i'd almost certainly be knocked back, just for debt vs income

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 5

Dez

Companies can see how many cards/loan products you already have. If you have 2 open cards already then they may be reluctant to give you a third, that's potentially quite risky from their end. Applying to multiple cards in a row will also negatively affect your rating, although this is generally temporary.

The main question is though, why are you applying for another credit card? What issue are you actually trying to solve here?

Reply 6

martin7

Original post by Grizwuld

you also say that you pay off monthly payments on time. This is very good for you as a customer but very bad for the card company since they cannot charge you interest or penalty charges. It's not clear from what you write if you make the monthly payments on time or if you clear all the debt each month. In the latter case you do not use the card as a credit card but as a deferred payment card and therefore create no credit history.

You do create a credit history, even if -- to use your term -- you're using it as a deferred payment card. The banks report more than just whether you've paid off the whole bill at the end of the month. (And by definition, "deferred payment" means "credit" -- albeit short-term credit.)

I always pay the whole amount when I get my monthly bill. And my credit report shows that -- "the bill was £X and payment received was £X" -- it doesn't just say that at the end of the month my balance was £0. And the report has data for six years. So anyone looking at my report can see a track record of how much I spend on the card each month as well as how much I pay off.

The headings in the credit report (this was from Callcredit) are: date, current balance, statement balance, limit, payment amount, number of cash advances, value of cash advances.

Reply 7

Jack22031994

Volunteer Team

Credit Card companies can reject you for many reasons; being :

Have debts
Have a low income
Continually miss payments on current credit cards
have been applying for lots of credit in a short period of time
made cash advance with a credit card
have no credit history

I would suggest to check your credit file and see if there is anything causing this