Failed credit checks with Vodafone - any ideas?

[ifonly4]

DD applied for an iphone with Vodafone, paying £300 upfront and a monthly amount for 24 months. She failed credit check, we thought it was either her credit rating as 18 or the fact she's a student in halls. She has always paid everything off, has money in her accounts and a potential student overdraft if needed. She spoke to her bank, explained what had happened and they confirmed they had no issue with her credit rating, in fact they'd give her a credit card or loan, so we know she'd could get more credit elsewhere.

I then applied for the same phone, same contract in my name at our home address. I was refused due to my credit check. Never been refused anything before, lived here over five years, just paid mortgage off, have no debts. I've done an online credit check against myself and I got 999/999.

Any ideas why vodafone have refused me, especially? It's such a good contract. Either of us could buy the phone outright, but it'll cost a lot more overall.

I feel that sometimes they ‘fail’ you on the cheapest deal so you have to go for a more expensive one.
I bought a car seat from Halfords 6 months ago. They did credit offers, pay over 12 months, 3 months or all at once. Both 12 and 3 months were interest free. I ‘failed’ the 12 month one despite a perfect credit score and high income/low outgoings. Obviously it’s better for them to have their £300 amounts within 3 months rather than 12 months.

Aside from the credit check, you will get a better Black Friday deal than that.

I have an acquaintance who was refused a contract phone "because you're unemployed". The reason why said acquaintance doesn't work is because she's loaded and doesn't need to. I think whatever criteria they use are a bit of a blunt instrument.

I had this last year which is hilarious as my credit score on Experian is 996. They couldn’t explain to me any details about why it failed.

Try 3 mobile. I failed with Orange years ago but managed to get a three contract.

I failed and my credit score is excellent. In my case it was a simple misunderstanding. They asked how long I’d been with my bank, not how long that particular account had been open. Once that was sorted it was no problem.

Probably looking at their own debt repayments record

This happened to one of my managers. He never had any debt paid everything of when it was due.

That was the problem he'd never had any debt so they didn't know if would be a good risk to pay back any money due or a monthly contract.

It's a bit weird but you have to have had a good payment record to show you are a good payer to get a contract.

He ended up getting a credit card to show he was good at paying any debts he had incurred.

May be this is the reason

No credit is bad credit, in the eyes of lenders. I've heard of some mobile networks being quite strict about their requirements especially for iPhones. An iPhone on contract is effectively asking to borrow over a grand, maybe closer to two; my first student overdraft and first credit card both had limits of just a couple of hundred quid.

Has DD registered to vote at her university address? If she hasn't, that will count against her for credit checks.

The UK doesn't use a generic 'credit score', lenders make their own individual decisions. Scores provided by reference agencies are hopefully informative but as people have found a high score doesn't mean you'll get everything.

If she has £300 just buy a phone for that amount, and get a sim only deal for the best offer she finds. You can buy a decent phone for that amount.

I have a credit score of 999 and was turned down for a £10 a month sim only contract with ID mobile- they said because I already applied and was accepted for another contract within the past 6 months they could not let me have another one- the other one was also £10 a month and both were for my children! Odd rules, could it be something like that, do you have a contact already with Vodafone?