just turned 18 a few days ago and i tried to apply for a credit card and the eligbility checker said no on all of them. Tried to see my credit report and experian wasnt able to confirm my identity and neither was any other credit agency. I am on the electoral roll (have been since i was 16) and have a few bank accounts. ive done some reseach and its maybe down to the fact that banks only start reporting to credit agencies after your turn 18 so it can take a few weeks. Would i be better off applying for a credit card with a bank im already a customer with (e.g barclaycard, barclays) or will i still get rejected.
Only they would know the answer to that, but there’s no guarantee of being accepted for a credit card even if you’ve been a customer for a decade and have a clean credit history. If you have no credit history at all it wouldn’t matter who you applied with, but I’d recommend not rushing into things straight away and at least give a chance for your credit reports to update and settle. It’s probably not a good idea to immediately have hard searches and new accounts on a fresh report anyway.
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Sometimes a cheap sim only phone contract can help that gets reported to your credit file. If you have multiple bank accounts, try requesting a £100 overdraft limit that will also trigger reporting even if you never use it.
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Yes. No guarantee you will be accepted but the above is often the best way to get your first credit card.
Perhaps try for Credit building credit cards | Barclaycard given your limited credit history.
I would probably hold off and wait 6-12 months to allow some history to be reported to the CRAs.
If you’ve literally turned 18, then the banks won’t have started to report to the CRAs - from what I see it is not real time, and there is some lag from the report to it showing on your file.
The type of bank account might also have an effect - are they standard current accounts, or are they U18s / savings accounts? The latter won’t report anything to the CRAs, not sure on the U18s products.
Banks won’t want to take a risk if they don’t see any history, and it takes time to build a history.
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Nationwide had accepted me for a credit card the minute I turned 18 so it definitely depends on some banks and your relationship with your bank.
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