just tried to get a new phone contract, but failed the credit check

lived in my present house for 7 years, paid off mortgage a couple of years ago, no loans or credit cards, can’t remember last time I went into the red. Not missed any bill payments, regular income

would of thought I’d be credit worthy?

must confess I’m a bit weirded out by it

o wise ones of STW, any ideas?

With no mortgage, loans or credit cards,you’re an unknown quantity, they have no evidence of you being able to pay something back.

It’s that or your wife/someone else that lives with you is a massively bad risk

You might not have a good enough credit history. They actually have to have evidence that you have managed credit ok, It’s not about you not having any debt.

Do one of those Experian or similar credit record requests. Look for errors and mismatches. I had bother over phone contracts back in the day and it boiled down to variance in the way my address was stated by different utilities, council tax, voters role etc. It can be a particular issue if your house has a name rather than a number or if you are in a flat within a larger building.

Its not out of the question theres old or out of date information or that someone else’s history has been conflated with yours (perhaps a previous resident at the same address)

Yes a mate of mine works at a credit agency, I would fail all tests as no history or proven ability to manage credit.  Apparently an unknown is higher risk than a bad payer.  I was told to borrow some money and repay it…funnily enough I didn’t.

I’ll research these agencies, don’t think I’ve taken any credit since I’ve been in current address…

there was a couple of to scallies living at my address before me, wonder if that has anything to do with it?

I was in the same boat as you – refused a phone contract. I also basically have no debt and the mortgage is in my wife’s name as I was a postgraduate student when we bought the house and they wouldn’t even consider me for the mortgage.

I haven’t tried to get a contract since. I buy a £200 android phone every 3 to 4 years and then 10 a month prepay on EE. I reckon I save 2k over the lifetime of the phone compare to a typical 30 a month contract.

You can check your credit record for free so you will be able to see what is impacting your score.

As suggested above, a lender needs to see your ability to “manage debt”.  So having no debt (no loans, credit agreements, etc) is not providing this.

But credit files are often wrong so check the details are accurate and get it updated if needed.

Definitely on the electoral roll?

Coz you’re a wrongun?

I had this issue with phone contract, problem was an old address of mine was down wrong in the credit agency’s address database so they couldn’t check my history. Bit of a faff to convince them their postcode lookup was wrong, but when I did it got sorted.

A lot of people are on the edited roll now, basically they can vote, but aren’t searchable on public info.

TBH the whole ‘no history’ thing is odd, nowadays everything is recorded, current account, utilities, TV / internet subscriptions etc etc etc.

Mobiles are one of the easiest passes, I’d sigh up for Noddle as it’s the easiest to use and see what’s up.

TBH the whole ‘no history’ thing is odd, nowadays everything is recorded, current account, utilities, TV / internet subscriptions etc etc etc.

yes it is – but its up to those suppliers to create and submit that record. You – the subject of the information – aren’t party to the process so you don’t know who, of the agencies you are a customer of, is supplying information to which  reference agencies, and whether the information is correct.

So in my instance the council tax and utilities were using address information that was different to the information I supplied in an application – but also different to the address they used in correspondence with me.

Interestingly there were also agencies – like my credit card supplier – who don’t seem to have supplied any information about me at all. So the longest held and most used credit facility I have (over 20 years) … doesn’t factor at all.

Get a credit card. Use up to 20% of the limit. Pay off each month. You should end up with medium credit within a year…

I’d check two things.

Credit record of the place you are in now. See if there is anything logged against the address by previous occupants that isn’t marked as “satisfied”

Go back to the Phone provider and ask why and  create a SAR.

These two things should help, may not get you immediate remedy but the Phone Co may just have an issue internally that’s nothing to do with any credit issues.

And yeah, a credit report is free but you have to approach those bastard credit agencies that create all sorts of bad records and record keeping and continuous GDPR breaches.

Frankly they should be closed down.

Don’t think I’ve had a mortgage, CC or any credit for  years (think the last one was a sofa 6 years ago) but still score very highly on these Experian type websites.  Get checked out frequently as a Company Director for things like company car finance. Would be interesting to see how things go if I actually applied for personal credit.

No mortgage, no credit cards,  no overdrafts, no loans?

There’s your problem in one. Doesn’t matter how good you are at paying council tax & utility bills, they need to see how good you are at managing credit. Which, as you don’t have any, you’re not very good at it at all

applied for a statutory credit report, will see what that throws up.

and yes PerchyPanter, i is a wrongun, and proud!

I failed loads a few years ago. Turned out they had my address entered differently to what I thought.. Flat number after street number.. Computers could not collate the two.

Money Saving Expert’s Credit Club is probably the best place to sign up to, I’ve found it really handy.