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| Will I be accepted for a credit card? |
Will I be accepted for a credit card?Credit Card providers look at your credit rating history maybe with a company like Equifax when making a choice either to give you a credit card or not. A good credit score is important. There are steps you can take to improve your chances of having an application for a credit card accepted. These include cancelling any cards you no longer use as they may inhibit your ability to get further credit in the future. Firms are increasingly looking at the total credit available to you, rather than just focusing on your outstanding debt. You also need to make sure you are on the electoral register at your current address. You also need to be careful about which cards you apply for – the best deals are only available to those with the highest credit scores so there is no point in applying for a card you have no chance of getting. Every time you make an application for credit a ‘footprint’ is left on your credit file and this has a negative impact on your score.  What is a credit reference agency?Credit reference agencies are commercial companies which compile information from a number of different sources, including the electoral roll, county court judgements and financial institutions. They sell this information to lenders and other service providers in the form of credit reports which help them to decide whether to grant an application for a loan, credit card, or provide another financial product. The three credit reference agencies operating in the UK are Experian, Equifax and Call Credit. What are lenders looking for?As well as asking you for details of your income, employment status and assets, lenders use information from credit reference agencies to assess how well you have handled credit in the past, and therefore how much of a risk they are taking by lending money to you. AGENCY CONTACTS Experian: 0844 481 8000 or www.experian.co.uk Equifax: 0870 010 0583 or www.equifax.co.uk Callcredit: 0870 060 1414 or www.callcredit.co.uk The agencies check your name and address against the electoral roll, so you may have problems if you are not on it. You may also struggle to borrow money if you have never taken out credit before, or if you already have what the lender believes to be too many loans or credit cards. There is no "blacklist" of people who will not be given credit - each lender analyses the information according to its own rules, so you may be turned down by one company but accepted by another. However, beware of making multiple applications, because many lenders take a negative view of a large number of credit searches in a short period. |
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