Help - no response from credit check referrals team...

[Anonymous]

Hi there, I wonder if someone can help out.

I applied for an O2 phone on Sunday night but my credit check failed. I have since checked my credit score, and it is high, and there should be no issues. My credit averages 7 years old, I have no late payments ever, I utilise 25% or less of my available credit, etc. etc.

I called O2 and was told I would be sent an email by the Referrals teams within 72 hours. I was also told I could email them with queries, so I also emailed them and explained my situation - 4 days later I have had no email and no response from the referrals team. Can someone help me get in touch with the team or follow up on this, please? My old phone finally broke and I need to get a new phone, but without O2 clearing me for this contract, I can't risk anyone running yet another credit check so soon.

The company that sold me the contract tell me that I might be able to get an authorisation code from O2 so I can proceed with the contract, and I am keen to make this happen, if at all possible, as soon as possible.

There are just two issues that might be an issue on the check, but neither of them reasonably should be, so I am hoping for a response from the referrals team so I can provide any evidence or context to back up what I am saying:

1. Registration on the electoral roll - I am registered, but I am registered at my London flat, where I voted last time, rather than at home in Sussex. I have now discovered that I can register at both and have done so, but this won't show up till January on the roll. Still, the fact that I am on the electoral roll, along with the other factors listed above means this really shouldn't be an issue. It can't be the case that phone contracts aren't available to people who split their time between a country home and a city flat...

2. A second credit check in a day - Earlier on the day that I tried to take out the O2 contract, I took out a contract with Three, which I immediately cancelled as I realised it was a mistake. I suppose O2 might have looked at this and rejected me for taking out credit twice in a day. However, I not only passed my credit check with Three, but I then cancelled the contract, so I did not in fact open a new line of credit... Again, the fact that another company looked at my credit score and approved me should not be disqualifying, most importantly because I did not actually take any new credit!

Any help in resolving this would be hugely appreciated. 

Thank you.

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

@Anonymous 

No one will tell you why you failed the O2 check but both factors you mention are possibles.

All you can do is email the CR Team 

creditfilereferrals@telefonica.com
Credit File Referrals Team
Suite P
Arlington Business Centre
Leeds
LS11 0NE
Fax 0113 2025865

[Anonymous]

Thank you for responding so promptly. I looked up the email address on here and found the address:

CreditFileReferrals@o2.com

Is this not correct? I will send it to the telefonica address if not. 

When you say nobody will tell me why, do you mean here on the forum? If so, I understand that - I just wondered if a mod or someone from O2 on here might be able to help with contacting the relevant team and expediting a response.

[MI5]

@Anonymous 

The email I gave you is the new address.

I mean no one, not even O2 will tell you why, but the credit referrals team may be able to override the computer decision.

No mod can help either as they don't have the authority to make those decisions as we've been told in the past.

[madasaf1sh]

@Anonymous

Credit Referrals can take between 10 and 15 days to respond.

At the end of the day and maybe not what you want to hear, but credit is not guaranteed even with a perfect credit score, and a credit score is not what companies use to determine credit worthiness.

as @MI5 has mentioned, no one at o2 or on here can tell you why you failed the credit check.

Also the Three factor may play into this as the Credit Reference Agencies will see 2 hard credit checks within a few hours from 2 mobile networks.

[Anonymous]

"At the end of the day and maybe not what you want to hear, but credit is not guaranteed even with a perfect credit score, and a credit score is not what companies use to determine credit worthiness."

To an extent I get this, but I think we also have to be honest that this is a bureaucratic excuse to stop people asking annoying questions and to have them accept their powerlessness.

The reality is that a) the majority of the UK population can get a mobile phone contract, and mobile networks are not selecting (and could not reasonably do so) for the top 5% of credit scores, and b) there are absolutely concrete reasons for accepting or rejecting customers following credit checks. It may not be score alone, but there are rules and concrete reasons. It is not some mysterious lottery whether you get credit.

With that said, it is fairly clear that one of the reasons given is the reason for my being rejected. Having no late payments ever does not exclude me. Having two credit cards, <25% credit utilisation, credit maturity of 84 months - these facts do not exclude me. Not having closed any credit card accounts in the last year or two does not exclude me. 

Being registered on the electoral roll in the wrong place MIGHT be a factor, although a human looking at the case should override it. Just being on the electoral roll is clearly the most important thing, and I can think of a bunch of friends off the top of my head who are registered at different addresses because of family homes, second homes, traveling for work, house/flat moves, and this is clearly common and, especially if viewed by an actual person, must be easily resolved.

Most likely the issue is having taken out a contract with Three the same day. Again, however, that should be easily resolved if an actual human looks at the detail. Being approved by a phone provider and then NOT TAKING CREDIT (due to cancelling the contract immediately, which is provable), cannot reasonably be grounds for rejecting a credit check. Nothing has changed apart from that another company thinks I AM credit worthy...

Anyhow, still no response from credit referrals a week later...

[Ben37]

This is unacceptable to me. I have been waiting for a reply from them for 15 days of them asking for general details and they now have come back to me saying they need my order number. I can’t give them an order number because the system does not allow me to take out a contract. Make it make sense. Equifax have stated that my credit is excellent and that there is no reason on their end as to why I was declined. 

02 say to contact equifax for a reason and equifax say it’s all 02’s dodgy system: this is the most frustrating thing to deal with because the referral team are so unimaginably incompetent. There is no communication and the online sales team know nothing on how to deal with any situation. 

This seems to be a prevalent issue so it boggles my mind as to why there is no way to properly deal with this. Equifax have said for O2 to conduct a manual credit check and not use their automated system. There, of course, is no way for you to ask the sales team to do any of this.

[Oxonian]

Welcome to this forum @Ben37. You will appreciate that this is a customer to customer community without a formal O2 presence so we cannot access accounts or offer other direct help. 

It looks like you are in a Catch-22 situation. I suggest that you consider messaging O2 on social media :-

  
Facebook : https://o2uk.co/O2CFB

X (previously known as Twitter) : https://o2uk.co/O2CTW

Instagram : https://o2uk.co/O2CIG

The social media team are based in the UK and have a strong reputation for solving problems. 👍