Four, Yes Four Credit Checks

[chrissa1]

I applied for a Vanquis Credit Card at the end of March to improve my Credit Score. I sent Proof of Identity to them last week.

Experian have informed me of four Credit Checks having been carried out on me, (one every 7 days), but no acceptance or refusal has been received.

What on earth is going on and surely this will be detrimental to my Credit Score, will it? Thanks.

[Sharingan]

My brother had this go on with his bank- totally destroyed his credit rating. Needless to say he's not a fan of NatWest.

[chrissa1]

There's not much to "destroy" Sharingan. However, each check would say the same as the previous one, so can anyone tell me why? Is it just a computer thing?

[boxtops]

Having a check done doesn't affect your credit rating, it's the results which matter.

[RATTER15]

Boxy, Credit checks do have a negative affect on your score if you are refused, it shows you as hungry or desperate for money and that will give a negative score. If you have a low score and get turned down, don't apply for any more credit for at least 3 months.

[Iluvspikey]

boxtops is correct

[Canary42]

Must be a bug somewhere - I've had exactly the same happen after opening a new account with Triodos - 4 checks at weekly intervals, but account opened successfully allegedly.

[Sharingan]

It doesn't matter whether you are refused or accepted it still affects your credit score. Lots of searches in a short time is credit file death.My brothers really dipped and it affected it for a long time, he hadn't applied for anything, the bank just randomly credit checked him and it took him over 12 months for them to amend the searches on his credit file and only after threatening them with legal action. Experian has a little article about it.
http://www.experian.co.uk/consumer/questions/askjames206.html

[boxtops]

Right - from that article of sheri's, I still infer that I am correct. If the searches are all to do with different credit applications (which looks bad, as if a person is hedging their bets applying for credit with a number of organisations) then I can see that it affects your rating. If however it's the same application (e.g. Vanquis in chrissa's case) and Experian are just double-checking that she's not applying for anything else in the same timeframe, why would that affect your rating? It's only a check, it's not a rejection. Multiple rejections can do you a lot of harm - this is only a search (not a decision) to make sure you're remaining credit-worthy. IMO.

[RATTER15]

Boxy, under those circumstances you are probably correct.

[Sharingan]

Lots of credit searches whether accepted or declined I (you can't see that directly anyway, you cna only see if a person has an account with that company on later reports and then how they handle it) show as a red item on both Experian and Equifax and they do affect your rating.

[Sharingan]

To clarify- my brother who had 6 searches done by Natwest had his score fall by 200 points taking him from excellent to good. Nothing else had happened at all, just that.

[chrissa1]

Thanks for all the input everyone.

What boxtops says, makes sense. In my case, as a discharged bankrupt, I wouldn't have been daft enough to launch a Credit Card Search blitz. Vanquis advertises itself as a card to "repair" a Credit Score. I could accept maybe two searches to check that multiple applications were not being made but four seems rather excessive.
Sharingan. As your brother's bank was making the searches, it could have been that he was applying, or had applied for an overdraft, Maybe, maybe not and the bank had made a mistake. The article you posted actually read like an advert for Experian as well as being informative.

I think I'll give Experian and Vanquis a ring and see what they say.

[Buenchico]

The fact that several searches have come from the same credit provider shouldn't set too many alarm bells ringing within the system. (It's not unusual for this to happen).

If you'd like to consider another card provider which is good for repairing your credit status, Capital One is well worth a look.

[chrissa1]

Thanks Chris.