Halifax Loan Refusal Adverse Credit Rating

[Banglaraj]

On July 2009 I was offered a top up on my Halifax personal Loan, the letter more or less guaranteed that I would be succesful if I had applied. Now having applied and being declined I am very upset that I have been rejected even though I was more or less guaranteed. Now I want advice on how I can remove this footprint from my Credit File that I have worked so hard to maintain a high standard on. I would be grateful if you can advise me on how to proceed and any letters that I can write to overturn the decision.

 

Here is the letter that they sent me.

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

Thank you for your letter dated 5th august 2009 in connection with the above mentioned loan application.

 

My understanding of your complaint is that you recieved a letter from us inviting you to apply for a top up on a personal loan. Following receipt of this letter you decided to proceed with the application, unfortunately this was declined. You feel this decision as affected your credit rating and wish for Halifax to either overturn the application or correct the credit file.

 

Having carried out a full review of your complaint, and note the letter was sent dated July the 9th was inviting you to apply for a top up loan. This letter does not confirm any application recieved is guaranteed and is subject to our underwriting criteria. This letter is a general letter issued to customers where their current personal loan is coming to a close in the near future.

 

Unfortunately when you applied for the top up loan for the amount of £4000 it did not meet our current underwriting criteria and was therefore declined. In line with our policy I am unable to agree with your request to reconsider the loan application. In connection with your credit file as this is the true reflection of the application I am unable to remove the footprint that has been created.

 

Although my response is not what you wished I can assure you that the reasons for our decision. If I can be of any further help please do not hesitate to contact me.

 

Regards

 

Halifax.

[jon_boy75]

one search footprint will make zero difference to your credit worthiness

 

6 or 7 might have a little impact

[ShowMeTheLight]

I checked my Experien report before and after the application and the scoring went down by 40 points? Does anyone have any advice? Thanks in advance.

[jon_boy75]

I checked my Experien report before and after the application and the scoring went down by 40 points? Does anyone have any advice? Thanks in advance.

 

If you agreed to go ahead with the application, it's unlikely the Search footprint can be removed.

This is why quotation searches would be a good idea, but very few of the lenders subscribe to that idea. I'm sorry your score came down, but it will fix itself pretty quickly.

Remember that lending criteria have tightened considerably since you first took the loan out. You're not alone

[izools]

You won't get the search removed as you agreed to it being carried out.

 

Have you checked your experian score before and after?

 

And FYI the score can drop dramaticall after far fewer than 6 or 7!

 

I remember when applying for a loan-extension with Abbey National long before the credit crunch hit, they refused it and when I spoke to their underwriting team they said they wanted to se NO, ZERO credit searches for SIX MONTHS before approving the requested extension. There was nothing else wrong with my application, just searches.

 

It's a major sticking point with most creditors, but in this case there's not a great deal that can be done unless Halifax didn't keep a record of your consent to a credit search...

[jon_boy75]

You won't get the search removed as you agreed to it being carried out.

 

Have you checked your experian score before and after?

 

And FYI the score can drop dramaticall after far fewer than 6 or 7!

 

I remember when applying for a loan-extension with Abbey National long before the credit crunch hit, they refused it and when I spoke to their underwriting team they said they wanted to se NO, ZERO credit searches for SIX MONTHS before approving the requested extension. There was nothing else wrong with my application, just searches.

 

It's a major sticking point with most creditors, but in this case there's not a great deal that can be done unless Halifax didn't keep a record of your consent to a credit search...

 

unfortunately we cannot see the formula they use to increase and decrease scores. sometimes I've made 3 apps with very little impact on my score and at other times made just one with a more significant impact.

Also, a reduction of 40 points would not be considered big to some people, but really significant to others.

Perhaps all financial institutions have now aligned the way they impact scores, but we will never know unless the CRAs tell us.

The CRAs by the way, are an absolute shower! They operate with impunity, serve the banks and ignore the word of people like you and me. FACT!

[izools]

you're quite right jb75 and there's no real way to know how much it will have impacted you even if you do get your score from Equifax and Experian, as that would just be the score according to their formula.

 

Every creditor has a different score sheet and will judge you differently based on the same CRA data and Application details.

 

It's clear that there can be MASSIVE discrepancies in the way score sheets treat the same set of data as my Mother has found out:-

 

Her Experian score is 900 points (GOOD), and her Equifax score is 290 points (VERY POOR). I've gone over both reports with a fine tooth comb and the data is IDENTICAL.

 

The wierd thing is when she applied for two credit cards last year, it was the one who searched Equifax that approved the application... as we know, different scorecard for every creditor, it's so hard to know where you stand regarding applications and refusal / acceptance.