Thanks Jalexa, yes guess we are somewhat bitter as we thought we deserved more after 30yrs loyalty with A & L. Yes too, we can pay the £2000 from savings - and more if we needed to - all banked with the A & L as a quick check of our account would show. Also of course, if the balance is paid off our current card we wouldn't need to apply for another one with a generous BT offer, would we? Thanks for the tip about the currency card - we already have one. I only use the credit card for other extraneous expenses, ie restaurants and duty free.

Thinking of opening a Nationwide account and A & L can go to blazes.

verasgirl:

Can anyone advise what we should do?

First of all don't be bitter, take it on the chin. Credit is not guaranteed.

In hindsight its probably a predicatable outcome. To put a harsh slant on this I think what you wanted was to BT the £2000 to the new Santander card at 0% for 12 months (3% fee probably). Unfortunately thanks (or no thanks) to Credit Reference Agency enhanced reporting the lender can infer from the search that that is your likely intention. Santander decided they wouldn't make enough money from you for the risk involved.

Your ("excellent") Equifax credit score is only one aspect of the assessment. It takes no account of income. Your income (I assume pension) is first mentioned on the application form. Almost certainly the lender has decided that your existing credit balance (and available credit) has reached their limit for your income.

OK, what to do. The £2000 is a done deal unfortunately. If what you want is another credit card then pay down the £2000 from savings and wait a month after your statement. Alternatively pay it off significantly more than minimum payments for 6 months. Then apply for another card which doesn't feature such a generous BT offer.

Alternatively, a prepaid € currency card would be ideal for your travel.

If you can't pay down the £2000 from savings then unfortunately Santander were right.

My husband and I are both in our mid/late 60s. We have banked with National Giro/Alliance & Leicester for over 30years. In September we received a booklet from A&L informing us that now they were part of the Santander group, they would be using the Santander Credit Card with 3 months 0% on purchases and 12 months free on balance transfers. As we had already decided to upgrade our car, we put £2,000 on our current MBNA (A&L linked) card then applied for the Santander new card. We applied on 15th October but still hadn't heard anything by the beginning of Nov. I then rang them only to be told - quite curtly - that we had been declined. Not being able to understand the reason for this, I rang the complaints line at A&L and all our details taken. The lady was very helpful and suggested we might want to check we were on the electoral roll. I explained we had lived in our current home for 36yrs and were most definitely on the electoral role. She then suggested we try Equifax, the credit agency. This I did and could find no reason why we should be treated this way so spent £5.95 for the Credit Score. This came back as 977 "Excellent". 2 days later we received a "standard" letter from Santander Credit Card company to say "we did not meet the criteria" and although I rang them, they would not tell me what their criteria was!! My first reaction is to simply leave A & L and apply to a new building society for a new current account and credit card but having to go to all this effort not to mention stress seems so unfair. To add insult to injury, we wanted the Santander card to use in Spain which we visit a couple of times a year for approx a month at a time. Can anyone advise what we should do?