To start with I'm sorry if this is in the wrong place, I'm new and am not to sure where this should be. Any admins feel free to move this to the correct place.
I graduated from university 2 years ago, am in a full time job, rent my flat, have a current account and have never had a bank charge. I have a mobile phone on contract and am registered to vote at my address. I had a store card for about 1 week in 2007 then realized I didn't need it and had it closed down. The phone and store card appear on my credit file. The current account only appears under my linked addresses section on my credit file (I have access to it through credit expert). I have home insurance and that shows nowhere but there is a thing appearing for HSBC isuranc brokers that I have no idea about. Someone at credit expert customer services says it looks like I had a quote for something because it's not something that lenders would see when searching my credit score. I haven't had quotes for anything from the HSBC and certainly not at the time the thing is dated.
I never had a student credit card but thought I should really start to build a credit profile seeing as at some point I will want a mortgage or may need a loan for something. I have applied for 3 different credit cards and all have been declined. None are showing on my credit report at all, I have called credit expert just to check that I'm not missing them appearing somewhere and the person I spoke to confirmed there was no sign anywhere of me having applied for anything let alone been declined. Am I correct in thinking that this means they aren't even credit scoring me but just rejecting me straight off the bat? I'm applying for ones like the Aqua card and one with Barclycard which are, as I understood it, meant for people with poor or no credit histories, CCJs, been declared bankrupt and are meant to help you rebuild/build a credit file.
Can someone please advise me where I'm going wrong and what I should be applying for please as I am pretty lost and don't know what to do.
I considered Vanquis but having read some things on here about them they seem to be an utter nightmare.
I intend to have the card and pay off in full each month so I can just build a credit profile for when I need it in the future.
Thank you.