To ask why this application was declined in your opinion?

[whydeclined]

Applied for a phone contract and it’s been declined. They’ve emailed me with a list of possible reasons, none of them apply. Checked Experian and I’ve never had a late payment and my credit score is 900. Only ‘moderate’ risk on there is the fact we’ve had our mortgage for only 11 months and I have one month left to pay on a 0% sofa - so literally less than £100 outstanding credit, on any account.

Otherwise I would say normal spending. My husband has a PCP car which payments are always made on time, the normal phone contract and also a credit card on 0% for home improvements which there’s only about £1000 on. That was applied for in the last 6 months but again payments are always on time and both our credit scores are decent, his is excellent.

Does anyone know why this might be? I feel really stressed because I know being declined can affect your credit score.

I am on maternity leave so possibly it’s income based but it’s less than £30 a month and I have no other credit.

Could be as simple as you aren't on the electoral roll at your current address.

I am 😬

The lender doesn't actually see a credit score when they do a search on you, that's purely an arbitrary number the credit scoring companies use for you to see.

Inputs into whether they accept or decline can include the amount of credit you have, the %age of your lines of credit that you are using, and your credit history. You can be declined for not having enough credit history as well as being "maxed out".

Gave a look at Martin Lewis's website, moneysavingexpert.com, he has loads of info on there regarding credit applications, etc.

Edited to add:

www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/credit-rating-credit-score/

Hth

It's possible it's because your on maternity leave. I had a the same during maternity leave when doing soft searches through money supermarket - refused credit. I had a high credit score, mortgage, no missed payments etc, returned back to work and had no issues reapplying.

Have you moved house recently? I think some companies can decline on that basis as I've had difficultly getting a contract in the past and that was suggested by the sales rep as a possible reason. Can your DH get a family plan and add you on? Not ideal, but could save you the risk of applying elsewhere and getting declined again.

Can't help with an answer I'm afraid.
Just to say though, I've been with 1p for years, they use EE as the provider, have it on automatic top up, they notify me when taking it. They have several plans which I don't bother with.

I can think of disadvantages to contracts, but not one benefit.

When we applied for mortgages we found that they took the total amount of possible debt (credit card limits) and assumed they were at maximum, even if there wasn't anything on them. If you have high card limits, even if you have nothing on them, sometimes that can factor.

My contract, on 1p Mobile, would cost £25 per month. For £4 more, on EE, I get Netflix/TNT Sports/Google One, which cost around £20 bought separately. That’s a pretty big benefit from having a contract. Of course, you may not think that’s of any benefit to you personally. Incidentally, I think 1p Mobile is great, most of my family use them.

This is right. “Credit scores” are arbitrary sh1te made up by the credit referencing agencies so they can sell you their tools.

Many years ago when I worked in the bank we had a Credit Score Machine. If someone requested a loan, you input their details, above a certain score the loan was granted, below it was refused. Sorry no help to you OP, just a bit of reminiscing.

I had this problem with Vodafone, despite a 999 rating. It took weeks of complaining to Vodafone to get it sorted.
Turned out it was a system error at Vodafone … despite us always paying on time, no arrears etc, the Vodafone internal system was not registering the payment as being made. So our bills were all up up date, and Experian was fine, but an internal glitch caused a problem.

It took ages to get them to say it was them … loads of fluff about Experian, and about what they could / couldn’t see .. I had to be persistent