Bank Account

[Jolauch]

Does anyone know of a bank/building society that will issue a debit card to someone who has a less than clear credit rating?

[STAH]

Hi there Jolauch,

It depends upon several factors:

i) The extent of the damage (if any to your credit rating).

ii) Whether or not any adverse information has been passed to the credit reference agencies (Experian/Equifax).

iii) The credit scoring policy of the bank/building society.

If you have missed a payment on a credit card by a day or so on one occassion then I feel as though you have nothing to worry about. However, if your accounts had got to a final demand status, or a debt had to be written off then you would only qualify for a basic account.

I recommend that you get a copy of your credit report from http://www.experian.co.uk/creditreport/ to answer this question.

From there on in, you can see your full report with expalantory notes to assist you. After this, you will have to apply to a bank or building society for the facility to meet your needs. REMEMER: If your application is declined, the bank/buliding society HAVE to give you a reason as to why. Whilst they do not see the extent of any written off/doubtful debts, they can tell you if it was the credit reference agency search which gave them the decision to decline your request.

Good luck.

[trulli]

NatWest step a/c.

[lou 26]

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/currentaccounts/

if you look on the above site it will tell you who provides basic bank accounts and compares them

[stevie21]

Some, possibly most, Basic accounts don't come with debit cards as these accounts are designed for groups of people including those who are a high credit risk.

If you really are THAT high a risk then don't expect to get a debti card. Obviously shop around and good luck in getting one, I hope you do, but banks make financial judgements based on numbers. I'd maybe aim for a Solo or Electron card - they're effectively "introductory" debit cards