Work this one out????…....

Fade and Die

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Dont confuse, not allowed to tell you why, with your rights to know what public (ie credit data/ccj) data they used.

Tell them you wish to make a formal complaint over their use of incorrect data. You have rights if they are holding what you believe to be incorrect data on you.

This is covered under several acts, and there is an ombudsman you can involve.

But the first stage is the formal complaint. For £700 is is worth it


It’s not just the £700 though it’s his credit rating and being refused credit can be damaging further down the line. (Might have trouble getting the old Stannah fitted in a few years!?) For the sake of a few emails it’s got to be worth a try.
 

GreiginFife

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Absolutely.
You also have right to lodge Notice of Corrections on you credit file. I've not worked in this field in a while, but the fundamentals haven't changed.

Few things though. First you have to prove that it was an erroneous entry. Companies use the credit rating as a guide mainly and it's not the be all and end all of credit approval.
In most cases CAIS data is used which doesn't just look at payments made/missed but also utilisation and current "solvency" compared to credit utilisation.
IIRC Vodafone don't just use Experian, but also Call Credit (which I think is now called Transunion) and Equifax. So even if Experian shows 999 that is only one part of it. Call Credit were notorious for giving low scores by really scrutinising the utilisation rather then the history.

Companies will also have differing guidelines and thresholds. Auto finance being one of the least strict AFAIK as there is security against the vehicle in most cases (you don't pay, they take it away).

It may very well be that the rejection was in error but it's hard to actually prove it as your credit score in isolation really doesn't mean much.

Also, AFAIK rejections and accepts don't actually distinguish in CAIS data, just a credit application and it's the volume of credit applications in a six month period which means that the "trial" application that Smiffy has processed is as harmful as the rejected one.

My experience of this is that I spent 3 years working in retail credit approvals designing customer and user journeys for different banks.
 

GreiginFife

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Exactly. That's why I mentioned challenging it. When Vodafone said that can't discuss the decision, thats not entirely true, if you see what I mean.

I do but even if they do say, they could basically say anything as they have no obligation to lend.
They could say that they felt credit utilisation was too high and triggered a risk profile.

The new persistent debt rules are also causing some issues from what I have been hearing.
 

pauljames87

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It turned out they couldn't find me as they were searching my works address as I'd given that as my delivery address...???

I had this before

Was setting up a direct debit with my bills account and paying with another debit card

The assistant didn't understand when asked right what bank do you mean when you ask how many years? As it's 15 with one and 3 months with another (for example) declined before I was like right just try this .. oh it won't be that

Worked ofc.

Leave to the professionals ofc ?
 

Smiffy

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Still having big problems. I have written to Experian to find out what's going on.
Applied for 0% finance over 6 months on a new TV with Currys.
Declined immediately.
Double checked both credit reference agencies that I use, and both of them are showing 100% "excellent" credit worthiness, including the aforementioned Experian, the agency that this particular lender uses!!
Somewhere there is something going on, but I'm buggered if I can find out what it is.....
:mad::mad::mad:
 

Smiffy

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Mistaken identity?

No idea Ken.
This is really frustrating as I have always been so careful with my credit history.
I have lodged a complaint with the ombudsman but won't hear back for at least 10 days or so.
I have checked on Experian, Credit Karma etc. and all show my credit rating as excellent with no black marks anywhere.
Never missed a payment on my mortgage or any of my previous credit accounts, all being settled on time etc.
It's very, (very!!), frustrating....
 

Golfmmad

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No idea Ken.
This is really frustrating as I have always been so careful with my credit history.
I have lodged a complaint with the ombudsman but won't hear back for at least 10 days or so.
I have checked on Experian, Credit Karma etc. and all show my credit rating as excellent with no black marks anywhere.
Never missed a payment on my mortgage or any of my previous credit accounts, all being settled on time etc.
It's very, (very!!), frustrating....
Rob, I don't know if this has been mentioned but has someone else in your family had not such a good credit rating.
No offence on your family mate but it happened to me once. My Son had a carefree attitude towards credit etc. ?.
 
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Smiffy

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Rob, I don't know if this has been mentioned but has someone else in your family had not such a good credit rating.
No offence on your family mate but it happened to me once. My Son had a carefree attitude towards credit etc. ?.

No mate. Only the wife and I here, none of the kids ever took out finance at this address. Address is clear.
 

GreiginFife

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I'm sure I posted similar before but please do bear in mind that your credit score isn't really all that important when it comes to actual lending. It's not a rating of your "credit worthiness" at all and, in most cases, lenders don't even see your "score".

The subject of the UK credit system is a complex and painful one as decision making is primarily based on what's called CAIS (Credit Account Information Sharing) data that details all of your accounts, usage, credit solvency etc over a rolling 6 year period. Most lenders have an affordability criteria that includes a "stretch payment" (essentially what would happen if interest rates changed - and yes I know you said it was 0% but that matters not a jot in the way that most lenders review).

Secondary to all of this is that there is no definition of what "good credit worthiness" actually looks like, there's no defined standards and all lenders work on the basic premise that they are under no obligation to lend and therefore can set their own criteria (I've worked in 5 different retail credit businesses and all have different thresholds and tolerances). This basically means that they don't even need to give you a reason and this is how they can just direct you to the reference agencies (passing the buck) as the reference agencies can't really tell you why a lender said no as they are not the lender.

If you have a credit card with more than 60% utilisation of balance for example, this can affect decisions to lend, if you only make minimum payments to short term lending accounts (which includes credit cards) then this will impact. If you have opened new credit or banking facilities in the last 12 months. If you have newly erratic or heavy usage of a bank account (even if the balance in the account is healthy). Voter role omission is one of the biggest problems for lenders. Essentially any activity that makes a lender nervous can trigger it.

Now, with all that said, an outright decline (rather than a referral) is a definite indicator that your CAIS data has something in it that the lending criteria isn't liking.

Also, on the subject of people at your address, these should only affect you if, in your CAIS data, they are registered as a financial connection. And that usually means joint account, joint lending or being guarantor for someone. Simply living at the same address is not considered a financial connection in majority of cases. This used to be the case (as well as people previously living at the address) but changed a good while ago.

There's also no such thing as a blacklist or any other list that may have existed decades ago before computerisation of data took place.
 

Smiffy

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Appreciate what you are saying, but this is not the first time it has happened recently. Prior to this I've never had a problem, so something has happened fairly recently.
I will get to the bottom of it....
 
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