The mysterious case of the vanishing credit worthiness
Honestly, you'll shit yourselves reading this...*

I’ve always prided myself on good financial management skills. Barely a day goes by where I don’t check my bank balance. When I found myself single and suddenly existing on a fairly meagre salary, I immediately opened up a second current account where all of my newly acquired direct debits could be paid from, leaving me knowing exactly how much spare cash I had each month for beer and food and beer and comics and beer and DVDs (except it was still videos in those days). This is a principle I still operate today.

Where am I going with this? Patience…

I have never defaulted on a mortgage / rent payment, never missed a council tax payment, nor any utility bills; and generally pay my credit card off each month. ‘Oh ho’, thinks I, ‘this financial acumen what I possess will be of great help in later years and no mistake’. *Grins smugly while all around him financial fuckwits wonder where tomorrow night’s kebab is coming from*

And sure enough, we get to last year. Having sold my house and made a tidy profit on it, I move in with Madame Sweary, and we look at buying her place. After a long period of attempting to get a very small mortgage (using the bulk of my savings as a deposit and retaining some money to do improvements with), we eventually tell the mortgage company to stick their offer sideways, as they would only offer us a sum that was ten grand more than we wanted to borrow, and by the way, there will be an extra one grand arrangement fee for the privilege. Er, no thanks.

So we paid cash, which wiped out most of my savings, and I decided to try and get a loan for home improvements. Not a huge amount, around £10k. Looking around, Tesco seemed to offer the best deal, so I duly applied on line and eagerly awaited the confirmation that they would be only too happy to help, being the responsible little citizen that I was. Their money would be in safe hands…

Except that didn’t happen. No, what happened was that I got a refusal, but they couldn’t tell me why. It might have been something to do with my credit rating, they said, but even if they knew that this was the case, they would be unable to tell me the exact reason because of ‘data protection’ issues. Hmm. Data protection – data that other companies hold about me, FFS. Right, I thought, I’ll apply for my credit score and see what it says. So I did. The only thing on it that I could see would be an issue would be the length of time I was on the electoral roll at my current address. Otherwise every other entry on the report was a glowing recommendation of my candidacy for credit.

It would appear that I am either too safe a pair of hands to lend money to, as I’m highly unlikely to default and therefore hold less of a potential profit margin than your average pissy chav on Income Support; or my length of time at my current address is knocking my score down a bit as I can’t properly demonstrate security in terms of abode. Or perhaps they just didn’t like me. Or possibly some other reason.

Whichever the case, it still remains unexplained to this day. Not exactly supernatural, but still a bloody mystery to me!

Bloody data protection.


*May not actually be the case
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Thu 3 Jul 2008, 15:32, 14 replies)

Or
everyone who is involved with anything to do with handling your money is a bit fat twat.
( Madam Marlboro wonders if you've found her yet, Thu 3 Jul 2008, 15:34, closed)

stupidly
not having any debt can actually be bad for your credit rating. those with the best credit ratings are those with mortgages and credit cards who pay them every month.

ludicrous!
( rachelswipe with a fork, Thu 3 Jul 2008, 15:38, closed)

I'm not sure how it is over there
but apparently over here, they are more likely to loan money to someone who is already in debt rather than someone who pays everything off each month. Frankly, I don't understand how this new credit scoring system works.
( flirting with badgers What? It sounded good at the time., Thu 3 Jul 2008, 15:38, closed)

It's fairly widespread practice
to offer loans to potential "bad-debtors" before the good customers who will pay it all off on time. You're right to suspect that their profit margin is at stake. Think of all the charges for missed payments, red letters, then they get it all back selling the debt to a debt-collection agency.

Try your own bank. In person, not online. Hint that you may feel obliged to move your account (if it's generally in credit then they'll want to keep it) and ask them for twice as much as you need. Then change your mind and go for the lower amount.

No promises, but I know people for whom it has worked.
(TheWeeWitch hasn't been here much recently .., Thu 3 Jul 2008, 15:39, closed)

@rachelswipe
Correct. The standard method for clawing back from the depths of credit unworthiness (surely the modern day leprosy) is to take out a credit card with a "mad" interest rate (companies provide them exactly for this purpose) and ensure that you pay off the balance each month.
(Mork, Thu 3 Jul 2008, 15:42, closed)

Nah.
It's just TESCO being wanky. Same thing happened to me. Went to RBOS got the same deal no bother. Go figure.
(porkylips looks better as the sun goes down., Thu 3 Jul 2008, 15:46, closed)

Well...
I have just had a loan approved by a high street lender, which I'm about to accept, I think. However, it's at a higher rate than the 7.9% advertised 'because of my credit rating'. It's still affordable though, and if I get the job I'm about to apply for my pay rise would cover it, and then some...

Oddly enough, it's not through my own bank either, who were going to charge a ludicrous 15.9%. Nor via my Egg internet account, where a figure of 22% was quoted...

Either way, you should still be able to be told the exact reason for refused credit there and then, without financial companies hiding behind the arse that is data protection. Especially when it's data held about you in the first place.

Fucknuts.
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Thu 3 Jul 2008, 15:46, closed)

I hate banks.
that is all.
(happylittletulip helpless and delicious, Thu 3 Jul 2008, 15:50, closed)

Bloody hell.
I got a £10,000 loan out about 4 years ago for 6.4%. Have they gone up so much?
( girlinthehole, Thu 3 Jul 2008, 15:52, closed)

Depends
Asda are still doing 6.9% (they turned me down as well t'other week, the bastards. Happy to help? Yeah, right).

All depends on your credit score. Mine actually says that I have a good credit rating and am highly likely to be offered credit... Hmm, not so far I haven't. The percentage rate you are offered will depend on your score, it seems...

Thing is, with the credit crunch you'd think they'd be desparate for business.
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Thu 3 Jul 2008, 15:56, closed)

Grr.
I have a bank loan (a small one mind). I've never missed a payment, only a year to go.

I have a credit card with a £500 credit limit. I have never missed a payment.

I have a mobile 'phone. I have never missed a bill.

I am on the electoral roll. I have no CCJ's. I am rarely overdrawn.

I am, in short, a Good Boy.

And yet, when I went to the bank for a mortgage last year, they turned me down, even though my mortgage repayments would be less that my rent! (I know that has nothing to do with it, but it's irksome).

Beyond this, I have a friend who earns half of what I do (nothing wrong with that), but they throw credit cards at him, he has multiple loans, and multiple missed payments.

Sometimes I think I'm beind penalised for actually being careful with my money, and not being one of the 'have it now on credit' people. If I want something (like my new TV), I save up for it. Maybe that's my problem.

Oh, and the Credit Score, I think, counts for shit. Mine's 'good' (a point off excellent) and nothing doing.

/end rant.
( Devil_In_Tights the *real* DiT!, Thu 3 Jul 2008, 16:26, closed)

I'm convinced
That my score is down to the length of time I've been at this address - just over a year. Nothing more.

It's a pain in the arse, frankly.
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Thu 3 Jul 2008, 16:39, closed)

Very odd
I've got a mortgage, motorcycle loan, bank loan, and a credit card with a 1.6k limit, all paid without anything getting missed, a good boy just like you...

...and everyone and their missus is offering me more loans. Letters every week.
(Musuko, Sun 6 Jul 2008, 1:36, closed)

Favour
They've done you a favour mate. This way you may have to save up again (and by all accounts, it sounds like you're financially savvy) and save yourself paying them any interest.

Yeah, sure it may take a little longer, but then you won't be in those scum sucking bastards pockets.

In case you hadn't guessed, I'd quite happily see every bank in the land end up at the bottom of the ocean.
(dchurch bah, Mon 7 Jul 2008, 14:52, closed)