Hi Shywazz, thanks for your response. He has another bank account at our address. We didn't use the card that is registered at his parents' address for the credit check for the phone, just for my online Experian check. He is on the electoral register, council tax etc. This free trial should mean that it isn't going to cost us anything to get it online, and to be honest I begrudge having to pay to find out what is wrong when it's not our fault. That would seem logical, but it doesn't seem to be the case! We've done this now! It might be a temporary thing, or it might turn out cheaper so he might end up keeping it.

Hello - I'm new here. I apologise that my first post is so long, but I really have to get this off my chest. Yesterday, we went to get a new contract mobile phone for my husband (he is 24 and I am 26). (He previously had a contract phone, but his Mum was paying for it.) We chose a phone and completed an application form, but when they credit checked my husband he was refused credit. He doesn't have any credit cards and the house is in my name, so I suggested putting the phone in my name - I have a contract mobile, so surely I would be able to get credit for another one? Well, my credit check came back the same - refused. The salesman said that it might be something to do with our address, and he gave us details to do a free online credit check with Experian. I tried to do this, but it asked for card details because it is a 30 day free trial and then you would have to pay after that. My cards are Maestro, and it said that unless you entered a Visa or Mastercard, they would have to send you a PIN number through the post before you could view your report. So because I wanted a response straight away due to being pretty upset about this, I entered my husband's Visa card details. I thought it was okay, but I didn't get my report so I read the FAQs. It said that they use the card details to verify your identity, so I'm obviously not getting a response because not only did I use my husband's card, it's registered at a different address (his parents' address). You can't get back into it, to re-enter a different card, and I can't ring them until I get home from work tomorrow. I just want to know what is on our credit records that means we can't even get a mobile phone! I don't understand how it can be the case that someone who previously lived at our address and didn't pay their bills could cause us to be refused credit. It just doesn't make sense to me. To be honest, I don't understand the whole concept of credit. I don't have any debts (apart from my mortgage and student loan), and this means that a lender would be reluctant to lend me money. If I had loads of loans and credit cards (i.e. lots of debt) then lenders would love to lend me more. The fact that I have a reasonable income and money in the bank (i.e. the means to pay) is irrelevant. This is just crazy. Who is responsible for dreaming up this ridiculous system?