Computer says no – Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

[Skywalker]

Despite my excellent credit score, perfect payment history etc, Barclaycard bots have decided I’m not eligible to switch to an Avios card. Nothing to be done, no human intervention possible like the good old days.

Amex seems to still like me, so that’s something, I guess! 🙂

[Andrew.]

The credit scores you see on the various websites are not the scores that are used by lenders. If you are switching between different Barclays products, they may not have used external data.

All the same it might be a good idea to check the data held by Transunion, Equifax and Experian though to make sure there’s nothing odd there

[Skywalker]

Andrew thanks for responding – done all of that – Barclaycard has confirmed they did all of that too – still “no”.

Beyond having a mini-moan about it here, if it’s not especially easy to obtain, then I’m not going to pursue it any further – just thought I would share my experience just in case anyone finds themselves in the same boat.

[Peter K]

Are you self employed? That seems to be a sticking point according to some reports.

[Granite]

Rob updated recently that in the new and improved sign up offer coming soon that “Well Healed” applicants maybe accepted if they reapply. I really hope so. I have £100K+ a year job, a Barclays Premier customer, mortgage free, no debt (2x PCP car) savings with Barclays. Amex and Mastercard balances are paid off monthly and thus a very good credit score (checked last week.)

But the computer says no ! I spoke with Barclaycard and they said everything appears to be in order, but they could not override the computer. Rob is aware of these issues and I believe is working with Barclaycard to overcome these application glitches.

[Cranzle]

Granite wrote:

Rob updated recently that in the new and improved sign up offer coming soon that “Well Healed” applicants maybe accepted if they reapply. I really hope so. I have £100K+ a year job, a Barclays Premier customer, mortgage free, no debt (2x PCP car) savings with Barclays. Amex and Mastercard balances are paid off monthly and thus a very good credit score (checked last week.)

But the computer says no ! I spoke with Barclaycard and they said everything appears to be in order, but they could not override the computer. Rob is aware of these issues and I believe is working with Barclaycard to overcome these application glitches.

Do you have an existing Barclaycard (or recently closed one)?

[Granite]

No.

[keeven]

Oops, I got a NO too!
Your application hasn’t been successful at this time and we will write to you shortly confirming this. We have declined your application because:
Your current levels of borrowing and expenditure compared to income indicate that if you take out further credit, you may find it difficult to keep up with repayments in the future.

I have one Amex and another Visa card, both have credit limit of 14k. I pay off the credit monthly. Don’t know why. Nevermind.

[GimmeMorePoints]

I got a no too!
They seemed unhappy that I closed my barclaycard with them over a year ago. AMEX offered £12k vs Barclaycards £800 so it was a no-brainer at the time.

[jonny5]

I applied this morning and got my first ever decline even though I have excellent credit history. Applied again this afternoon but this time used my santander account details on the application rather than my Barclays Premier account details and yep, you guessed it, instant approval!

[RonnieRoss]

My wife applied last night, she has a perfect credit score and a part time income of £29K. She has no mortgage or any outgoings. She has an BA AMEX with a £13,800 credit limit. Barclaycard came back with ‘we need to gather further information a decision will be made in 5 working days’. This farce is endangering peoples credit scores.

[Steven]

RonnieRoss wrote:

My wife applied last night, she has a perfect credit score and a part time income of £29K. She has no mortgage or any outgoings. She has an BA AMEX with a £13,800 credit limit. Barclaycard came back with ‘we need to gather further information a decision will be made in 5 working days’. This farce is endangering peoples credit scores.

Self-employed by any chance? Just wondering if this is their standard response for self-employed so they verify the income.

[RonnieRoss]

Steven wrote:

RonnieRoss wrote:

My wife applied last night, she has a perfect credit score and a part time income of £29K. She has no mortgage or any outgoings. She has an BA AMEX with a £13,800 credit limit. Barclaycard came back with ‘we need to gather further information a decision will be made in 5 working days’. This farce is endangering peoples credit scores.

Self-employed by any chance? Just wondering if this is their standard response for self-employed so they verify the income.

No she is not self employed. her income is £26K salary plus a small pension.

[Granite]

This is a direct question for Rob and the HFP team. What has changed in the application process that is now in place to help the “well healed” with their previously rejected applications. Has anything changed ?

[JDB]

Granite wrote:

This is a direct question for Rob and the HFP team. What has changed in the application process that is now in place to help the “well healed” with their previously rejected applications. Has anything changed ?

Are they “healing” from the ignominy of being rejected for the card or are they well-heeled?

[Rui N.]

RonnieRoss wrote:

This farce is endangering peoples credit scores.

Won’t somebody please think of the credit scores!

[Granite]

Well spotted JDB, I am massively jet lagged.

[Tom2]

RonnieRoss wrote:

This farce is endangering peoples credit scores.

Out of curiosity, how do you think this is endangering your wife’s credit score (or others)?

[Wasssup]

Also declined – for the first time in my life !

Sorry, we’re unable to offer you a Barclaycard right now.
Your application hasn’t been successful at this time and we will write to you shortly confirming this. We have declined your application because:

Your current levels of borrowing and expenditure compared to income indicate that if you take out further credit, you may find it difficult to keep up with repayments in the future
We reached our decision using information from credit reference agency / agencies. Their details are:

TransUnion Information Group Limited, One Park Lane, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS3 1E, http://www.transunion.co.uk/contact-us/consumer-enquiries, 0845 366 0071

[Angelamc11]

Also declined here despite excellent credit score/income/savings.

[Allied14]

Same here.. declined for the first time.

[RonnieRoss]

Wasssup wrote:

Also declined – for the first time in my life !

Sorry, we’re unable to offer you a Barclaycard right now.
Your application hasn’t been successful at this time and we will write to you shortly confirming this. We have declined your application because:

Your current levels of borrowing and expenditure compared to income indicate that if you take out further credit, you may find it difficult to keep up with repayments in the future
We reached our decision using information from credit reference agency / agencies. Their details are:

TransUnion Information Group Limited, One Park Lane, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS3 1E, http://www.transunion.co.uk/contact-us/consumer-enquiries, 0845 366 0071

• This reply was modified 54 years, 11 months ago by .

[NunoBettencourtsPinky]

I got accepted yesterday. I am a month-old Premier Banking customer, employed and holding a zero balance Amex and IHG Mastercard and no other existing credit.

Just trying to figure out the angle here as to why so many seemingly “good” applicants are being rejected. The card is positioned as a “collect points” proposition for an end product that the more affluent end of the UK demographic are drawn to? i.e. collecting and redeeming Avios. I would assume that with representative APRs of 23.9% and 72.4% (yeesh), most holders are going to be paying off balances each month. So surely Barclaycard aren’t aiming for prospective cardholders who might revolve an ongoing balance and penalising those who it thinks will pay off balances each month? That makes no sense given what the cards are about and especially if referrals are coming from HFP – the majority of applicants presumably have decent overall credit scores.

Not sure what I’m missing here, unless the algorithm is programmed to accept/reject an overall certain number, and its a small thing (maybe an existing mortgage or loan?) that results in rejection.

[RonnieRoss]

Tom2 wrote:

RonnieRoss wrote:

This farce is endangering peoples credit scores.

Out of curiosity, how do you think this is endangering your wife’s credit score (or others)?

When a company does a hard credit search I believe it can be detrimental to your credit score especially if you have too many searches.

[Rui N.]

Your credit score is irrelevant and worthless. It is not used by anyone other than the credit agencies to sell you stuff. But if you think it’s valuable, you shouldn’t be applying for credit cards because naturally there isn’t any guarantee that you’ll get approved.

What matters to lenders is what is your credit report and it will only matter if you are trying to get a loan (ask yourself: besides credit cards, how many do you usually get every year?).
And if you are trying to get a loan from a company that cares about the number of hard credit searches and doesn’t bother ask for an explanation, you shouldn’t been getting a loan from that company in any case. Any other company will have a process to talk to you and you can explain you did the application for a credit card because you wanted the benefits and at the same time you’ll also be able to show you are a responsible user of credit (if you’re not, you shouldn’t be applying to credit cards in any case).
But most likely they won’t give a damn about any hard credit searches, they’ll look at your credit history, on-time payments, credit usage, etc. (my current mortgage provider didn’t even do a hard credit search, they did a soft one when I got the agreement in principle and that was it).

• This reply was modified 54 years, 11 months ago by .