Santander student account

Hi guys ive applied for the student account twice and been rejected twice. I went into store and she appealed it there and then for me as she said i just dont really have a credit score, even though i pay for monthly direct debits like insurance and bills. After the appeal i am still rejected due to credit score and i was just wondering if anyone has experienced the same or has any tips for boosting credit score so i can apply again??

The first thing to do would be to get a copy of your Statutory Credit Report from each of the three main Credit Reference Agencies (CRAs): Equifax, Experian, TransUnion. There's no charge for this. Then go through them and check them for accuracy.

You should probably also submit a Subject Access Request to Cifas (https://www.cifas.org.uk/dsar) to make sure that Cifas don't have any adverse record of you.

If you're paying monthly for insurance then that would normally show on a credit check (as you're essentially taking out credit and paying it off over the course of a year), but normal bills won't show up on a credit report.

Also, make sure that you're registered to vote.

Thank you for your reply. I requested a statutory credit report today and should hear back soon. Will this tell me why the score is bad too? Im pretty positive im registered to vote but ill double check and if these things are all fine ill go on to the Cifas. Thank you so much i didnt know any of this

You need to request the report from all three CRAs. Different lenders use different CRAs, so what you get back from Equifax (say) won't necessarily match Experian. I would check with Cifas irrespective of what the CTAs say.

Your credit score will be low either because there's not enough data, or because what data there is doesn't flatter you. Note that the bank's credit score will be based on their own internal criteria, and won't match a "credit score" issued by the CRAs.

Do be sure to check all the details. Many years ago I discovered that my mortgage lender had recorded an incorrect date of birth against me -- and as that didn't match the date of birth that other lenders had recorded, it would have looked bad. (I suspect that this was simply a transcription error when the lender entered the information from a paper application form, but it's the sort of minor error that could cause problems later.)

I went with experian as when I got my declined leaflet they said they used experian. Do you still think its worth using all three?

and yeah ill definitely look into it, the woman at the bank said its probably because they dont have enough data but at the end of the day most students wont have mortgages and loans and stuff so i dont understand why they can justify declining an account due to a low credit score knowing most students will not have loans and stuff! It might even be down to the DOB error so ill have a look when i get it. They said they are sending my pass key in the post!