Mystery credit refusal

[WhatJodiDid]

My DC was recently refused credit for a new phone contract. She may need another credit check shortly due to house move (rental) so is really worried.

There's nothing obvious in her credit check at all, it's a high score - the only debt is student loan and monthly credit card bill which is always paid off. She's a high earner, over £100k (sorry, don't want to boast but thought it might be relevant) and outgoings are affordable. No late bill payments ever. Equifax can't help, she's at a complete loss as to what it might be.

The only slightly odd thing in her credit files is that her address is showing slightly differently - so in some places on her file it says eg Flat B, 10 High Street, elsewhere it might say Flat B, High Street or 10 High Street. Could it be that?

Equifax say that they don't make decisions on credit worthiness, the phone credit company (it was via Apple) say they dont disclose reasons for refusal of credit. Is there anything she can do to find out it what happened, and maybe resolve it for the future? Presumably she's also now got a 'refused credit' marker on her file

She's not on MN hence me asking.TIA for any advice.

What is the address on the electoral role? It could be that it is appearing that she is not on that due to the disparity.

The company Apple is are notorious for refusing credit. (Used to be Barclays but they may have changed it.) Both DH and I have been refused in the past. It hasn’t affected our credit rating at all, just meant we couldn’t take advantage of the pay monthly offer on our new phones.

Oh and you’ll never get an answer. We got round it by finding an interest free credit card and paying the balance monthly that way.

It's the address. Did credit applications for years. Try and get it sorted on the electoral roll and then marry everything to that

Mobile phones are an obvious and easy target for fraud, so I’d imagine any discrepancy in addresses could cause an issue and, as a poster above says, if the address on the electoral register is different again I can see why Apple or whoever their finance company is (used to be Barclays?) would decline an application. The other thing might be how longs she’s lived there. A rental property that’s been lived in for a short period and with address discrepancies is bound to be a red flag.

However, as she’s paid fairly well, why doesn’t she just buy the phone and then get a sim only contract?

The electoral roll is the Flat B, 10 High St version, and it's this that she put on the credit application, and that she always uses. She wondered if maybe it looks like she's moving round multiple addresses with the slightly incorrect versions showing on her credit file. If it is that, she's desperate to know how it can be resolved.

Thanks, interesting about Apple. Sounds like it is the address then. She's been there a couple of years.

Re the phone, that's not an issue for her really - it was just what started this all off, - it's the credit check for a potential move she's worried about.

Thank you, that's really helpful. Thinking about it again, Im not sure now whether she said the electoral roll is actally 100% correct, or it was just just some of the entries on her file that were wrong, so I guess which it is depends on who she contacts.

If there's 3 (or 6 to be extra safe) months between credit refusal and mortgage application then she'll be fine. With mortgage applications there's actually a human to use common sense rather than relying entirely on systems

It's rental rather than mortgage, hence her concern.

It probably is the address issue, but they've done her a favour anyway as she can just go SIM only with a month to month phone service and buy her phones separately.

'Contracts' for mobile phones (and Sky TV) are unnecessary now as you can get the same or very similar product for far less with no ongoing contract. It's not even like she can't afford to pay for an expensive phone in one go if that's what she wants.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap-mobile-finder/sim-only/

This I said contract when really it was credit purchase of a phone rather than a contract, my error. The phone issue just brought the problem to light.

Lenders have any number of criteria affecting who they'll give credit to. The score on Equifax and record there is only part of it. It may simply be she's outwith their target for some reason.

A search will probably show on her record but not the fact of a refusal.

Has she looked at her credit file to check there's nothing adverse that's wrong?

Probably thought someone on 100k wouldn’t need a credit agreement for a phone

Check my file is better as it does all the major agencies.