Computer says no – Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

[Tom2]

RonnieRoss wrote:

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.

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.[/quote]

Credit scores are not used by any financial institute. A hard search on your credit file would not stop you from getting any future credit that you would have been accepted for before that hard search. Lots of hard searches in a short period of time would be a red flag to a lender but would be short lived. what matters most to lenders is your credit history and utilisation.

Even if you were right, your wife decided to apply so the damage to the credit score is already done regardless of whether Barclaycard accepts her or not, so not sure how they would be endangering her score?

[keeven]

Is Barclaycard aware that how smart they are? As inspired by another post, I applied again with my another bank account, which I rarely use and has £500 transfer in each month. Guess what, I passed and got a 10k credit limit!
Ridiculous.

keeven wrote:

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.

[Rui N.]

Yeah, inspired by the second attempts by some people here, my OH also applied again after emancipating our 18 month old, and after going from 1 to 0 no dependants she went fron a no to the card to a £14k credit limit. I’m sure they paid a couple of million of pounds for that algorithm 🙂

[RonnieRoss]

Rui N. wrote:

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).

Thanks for that explanation it is really useful. We have no loans and our mortgage was paid 5 years ago. We have never missed or been late with a payment. My wife only has her AMEX with a £16,800 credit limit and the balance is paid of monthly Therefore, she should get a positive result?

[Rui N.]

That you’d have to ask Barclays 🙂 I’m not privy to their decision process.

[Sinead]

Hello
Barclays have recently advised us that there is an appeals process if you have been declined and don’t think you should have. Here’s what they say:

If you would like to talk to Barclaycard about your declined application, you can contact them on 0800 151 0900. Call charges may apply.
Please make sure you’ve got your Customer Reference number to hand (this can be found at the top of your decision letter or onscreen) so they can help you. If you are a Barclays customer, you can also visit your local branch.

Appreciate you may not have your application number to hand but i suspect they can find you using your postcode and email address.

[Granite]

Well the computer said YES this morning. I downgraded to the free card and instant acceptance.

[ed_fly]

Sinead Archer wrote:

Hello
Barclays have recently advised us that there is an appeals process if you have been declined and don’t think you should have. Here’s what they say:

If you would like to talk to Barclaycard about your declined application, you can contact them on 0800 151 0900. Call charges may apply.
Please make sure you’ve got your Customer Reference number to hand (this can be found at the top of your decision letter or onscreen) so they can help you. If you are a Barclays customer, you can also visit your local branch.

Appreciate you may not have your application number to hand but i suspect they can find you using your postcode and email address.

Thanks Sinead, that’s very helpful. Might try and dig out the paperwork they sent and give them a call.

[ianwardz]

I had a ‘We don’t know, we need to make further checks’ when I applied online. Now received a letter saying ‘Sorry – We can’t accept your application’ but no reason given.
If I want to know more I have to write to them. I can’t be bothered writing to them so given this up as a waste of time.
I have never been refused credit before, always pay on time and have a good income, maybe that’s why?
My wife also applied, she was refused, but her letter said due to credit rating. She has recently retired, but has income from other sources.

Not having a go at Rob and HfP, but this shambles isn’t a great advert for them and I am surprised HfP is still pushing this so hard on the home page, pop-ups etc.

[HFPCar]

got accepted! anyone know how long it took to receive the email from Barclaycard?

[CarpalTravel]

HFPCar wrote:

got accepted! anyone know how long it took to receive the email from Barclaycard?

Pro tip: Don’t hold your breath. Very many datapoints on here have shown it is everything from instant to never.

[BuildBackBetter]

One week since accepted (email received).

[HFPCar]

CarpalTravel wrote:

HFPCar wrote:

got accepted! anyone know how long it took to receive the email from Barclaycard?

Pro tip: Don’t hold your breath. Very many datapoints on here have shown it is everything from instant to never.

Thanks received the email about 2 hours later

[mj1a]

Thoroughly fed up with Barclays because of a rejection over the weekend and the letter giving no reason other than “contact Equifax”. The 0800 number is completely useless due to the menus and waiting times. I’m now trying to contact Barclays via the Premiere Banking App (yes, I took time to change bank accounts to them in the past 4 months)

I concur with the earlier message that while HfP has no say in the decision, the sheer madness of this and lack of customer support rubs off I’m afraid.

[mj1a]

mj1a wrote:

Thoroughly fed up with Barclays because of a rejection over the weekend and the letter giving no reason other than “contact Equifax”. The 0800 number is completely useless due to the menus and waiting times. I’m now trying to contact Barclays via the Premiere Banking App (yes, I took time to change bank accounts to them in the past 4 months)

I concur with the earlier message that while HfP has no say in the decision, the sheer madness of this and lack of customer support rubs off I’m afraid.

I’ve used the Barclays Premiere Account App’s Chat facility to lodge an appeal. They’ve confirmed they will do that on my behalf… let’s see what happens…

[Runnicker]

Got a referral on application last Monday. Email arrived yesterday evening saying I was approved and with a good limit

[Kirsty]

Question for Rob and the Team, is there anything that can be done to raise with Barclaycard the issue of Barclays Premier customers giving their Premier account details during the application process and being declined, but then trying again with the details of an account with another bank and being immediately accepted? My husband applied for the card using the HfP link on Monday, and was declined straight away. He is self employed with a decent income and has never previously been declined credit. He contacted the Premier Team to query the decision, and was given a number to ring Barclaycard, which he called only to be kept on hold for over an hour and then got cut off. He gave up after that. But after reading the comments on HfP this morning re other people in the same position changing the bank account used during the application, he has just applied again using a little used Virgin Money account (with just £39 sitting in it!) and was accepted immediately with a £13k credit limit! We’re really pleased but gutted that he’s lost out on 5000 Avios and an hour and a half of his time, and I assume HfP has lost a small amount of income because he’ll be shown as declined, for a seemingly farcical reason!

[mj1a]

Runnicker wrote:

Got a referral on application last Monday. Email arrived yesterday evening saying I was approved and with a good limit

Update from today is that the appeal was not upheld – just a follow-up text from Barclays saying no. Needless to say, that without any reason why, I’ve now raised a complaint. This is mad.

[Kathy M]

Has anyone got as far as being asked to send documents, then been turned down? I applied (not via a Barclays account ) and I had a letter saying provisionally accepted- please send certain documents- I sent them as asked, including my original birth and marriage certificates. Today I got a letter saying ‘No”. I can put up with that, but there is no return the documents, and there is no address/telephone number at which I; can chase them to get the documents returned. Glad I did not provide my passport! ROB, where do I go to get there back?

Like most people writing here I pay off my credit cards every month- my guess is that that is why the rejection- they wont make any money.

[NorthernLass]

@Kathy M – what a nightmare. Try writing to Barclays – there’s an address for complaints on the website. After getting not much more than gibberish on email and phone calls, I wrote to them and had a satisfactory outcome in about a weeK!

[Ant68]

RonnieRoss wrote:

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.

Absolutely right

[Gary_Dexter]

Ant68 wrote:

RonnieRoss wrote:

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.

Absolutely right

Absolutely wrong, actually.

[duggie1982]

Gary_Dexter wrote:

Ant68 wrote:

RonnieRoss wrote:

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.

Absolutely right

Absolutely wrong, actually.

So you are saying it may not be detrimental then? I mean its a very hard answer for someone suggesting it ‘could’ effect their credit score

[Gary_Dexter]

duggie1982 wrote:

Gary_Dexter wrote:

Ant68 wrote:

RonnieRoss wrote:

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.

Absolutely right

Absolutely wrong, actually.

So you are saying it may not be detrimental then? I mean its a very hard answer for someone suggesting it ‘could’ effect their credit score

There are no such things are universal credit scores. Each lender has their own assessment process which is commercially sensitive. They do not see the “scores” you see on the likes of Experian and ClearScore etc.

[Rob]

Kirsty wrote:

Question for Rob and the Team, is there anything that can be done to raise with Barclaycard the issue of Barclays Premier customers giving their Premier account details during the application process and being declined, but then trying again with the details of an account with another bank and being immediately accepted? My husband applied for the card using the HfP link on Monday, and was declined straight away. He is self employed with a decent income and has never previously been declined credit. He contacted the Premier Team to query the decision, and was given a number to ring Barclaycard, which he called only to be kept on hold for over an hour and then got cut off. He gave up after that. But after reading the comments on HfP this morning re other people in the same position changing the bank account used during the application, he has just applied again using a little used Virgin Money account (with just £39 sitting in it!) and was accepted immediately with a £13k credit limit! We’re really pleased but gutted that he’s lost out on 5000 Avios and an hour and a half of his time, and I assume HfP has lost a small amount of income because he’ll be shown as declined, for a seemingly farcical reason!

Everything written on here is read by Barclaycard and the Avios team (who go off to shout at Barclaycard), I promise you.