Hi Everyone,

First post so please be gentle....

.... just wanted to see what others thought - I have been trying to rebuild my credit following some debt issues 20 years ago. I saw the website advertised on the TV and thought I would take a look.

The site is great , advising me on credit cards that could help me with rebuilding my credit. I am currently in a great job with regular income so this seemed ideal. I applied for 2 credit cards as suggested and was accepted with fairly low credit limit. I have been using these cards and paying them (not just the minimum payment) and all going well.

I then received an email from the site that I regularly receive every few weeks informing me of my current credit score and to my joy the credit score had increased - within the email was an opportunity to continue increasing my score my applying for another card- I entered details and was told 90% chance - so clicked continue and filled out application online similar as before.

Message popped up saying further info was required and company of credit card would contact me.

5 days later I received a letter saying that the card I applied for was declined as I had taken out a credit card only 9 months ago from the same "parent" company - this search was now to be shown on my credit file as a negative !

Now, I realise that applying for multiple cards is a bad thing for credit scoring, however I felt a bit cheated as I was only following Clearscores own email stating I should apply to continue rebuilding my credit !! Their suggestion has now ended with a negative mark on their scoring system !

I just feel a disclaimer should have been present for me to see (not hidden in layers of small print) when I applied stating that even though we have recommended this card to rebuld your credit , applications to this credit card provider may be adverse ifyou already have one of their cards....

...Am I being reasonable or not ? Happy to hear whether you agree or disagree with me

Thanks in advance

Kev

Use Clear Score's contact form and submit a complaint - see what response you receive.

Most credit card companies now only do a soft search that do not impact your credit file.

Recently had this myself as i applied for both an AQUA and Marbles card for a balance transfer. Found out later they are owned by the same parent company 'Newday'

They simply cancelled the AQUA application and gave me a marbles card

What i am trying to say is that the application on your credit file (search) can only be seen by you, not by other future lenders being a soft credit search. Only a full credit search will be recorded. Your credit score will return back to normal after 6-12 months

And credit scores mean squat in reality and a money making [problem] by the credit agencies. It is your ability to pay that matters and stability. The credit agencies get a kick back with any successful application from that credit provider

you cant rebuild your credit in the way the companies insinuate that you can. If you have no credit card then that is a minus but as soon as you get one that is a minus as well because you are no longer a potential customer for CC co's.

Hopefully you have learnt something from this, it is their ball and they will invent the rules if you want to play with them. Use Clearscore or Noddle to keep an eye on things but dont use them for anything else, irti isnt in your interests but theirs. They earn money for the "step through" application, you didnt get the carda nd your score suffers as a result.

The advert may say that the soap powder washes whiter but they dont say whiter than what or how much whiter.

That negative marker due to the application will fall off in a couple months anyway. I did a few a couple years ago when i was severly in debt, and they vanished around 6 months later.