St George application denied - help/advice

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prf31

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Hi all,

Seeking your advice and/or to hear of similar experiences regarding a denial of consumer credit. I fully accept that this is a bit of a shot in the dark!

My wife was recently declined for a St George Amplify credit card (limit $15K). This is the first time she (or I) have been declined for consumer credit. She currently holds one credit card (Amex Explorer) with a credit limit of $9K but has had no issues holding the Amex and another card of $15K in the past. All cards are paid in full and on time. She has not applied for any form of credit since April 2018 and recently cancelled her NAB Visa (credit limit $15K) in order to apply for the St George card.

The application process was straightforward and she was conditionally approved. It was when she came to uploading the supporting documentation (payslips) that she started to run into issues. Firstly the St George system would not allow her to upload anything due to an ‘internal error’. She called St George and they told her to send her docs to an email address they provided which she did immediately.

Importantly, there is some nuance to my wife’s employment situation. Effectively she holds three jobs - two part time jobs and another consultancy gig. All stable employment with the part time jobs having been constant for 5+ years. Although the income is slightly variable these three jobs net her $120-130K p.a.

When St George do their income tests, they allow for only a first and second job, then other forms of income. In short, she was able to list the consulting as income on the online application, but wasn’t able to put down the consulting as a third job. Then, St George only request supporting documentation for first and second jobs which is what she provided. So although the consulting income is significant (~$60K per year) they asked for no supporting documentation regarding this.

My guess is that they’ve denied the application for credit based on the fact that the supporting documentation they have in front of them doesn’t match what was in the application, which I guess is fair enough. However, as there are some nuances to my wife’s employment situation further consideration would be handy.

As you would expect, St George is pretty opaque about the reasons behind their denial of credit, pointing only to their responsible lending criteria, all of which my wife meets. What I’m wondering, though is whether or not anyone has ever had any success 1. being allowed to speak to someone about their application after denial and if so, 2. explaining to that person their situation or providing evidence that should have initially been provided in order to allow a decision to be overturned.

At this stage, the plan is for my wife to take our bundle of docs and story down to the local branch in the hope that they might be able to point us in the right direction. Not holding our breath and expecting to just have to cop this in the chin though unfortunately.

Grateful for any insights!
 
This is pretty much par for the course for any complex application, especially for St George. You need to decide what is important and what isn't, for example I left out my rental income when applying to St George despite listing the mortgage as debt, because it's not worth going through their painful verification process for $25K extra income on your application.

If you happen to know they'll only accept 2 income sources, submit the two highest/easiest to document. I am not sure how many times I went back and forth with St George over my very simple 3 payslips, I'd hate to see what would happen if you had a complex case, it was painful. Keep it as simple as you can.
 
prf31 I too was declined on first go around - reapplied 6 weeks later on a whim and auto success - give it another whirl down the track my only advice.
 
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Thanks for the advice and insights. Very much appreciated. We will try (likely in vain) to reason with someone. If that fails, will try the application again down the track as suggested by Cruiser Elite.

Just seems curious that I got the same card a few months back with both a lower income and lower credit rating!
 
prf31 I too was declined on first go around - reapplied 6 weeks later on a whim and auto success - give it another whirl down the track my only advice.

Exactly the same here; I applied about 2 years ago and was declined straight away. Applied again early last year and was successful. I still have the card. I applied a couple of months ago for the Qantas version of the same card and was rejected. I'll wait another couple of months before I apply again.
 
i too was rejected for the st george in dec '17, my first application.
tried again in dec '18 and no issues.

had never been rejected for a CC ever before
 
How about the notice of assessment from the ATO? Maybe that will give more favourable info.
 
I also opened an everyday account the last time they had $50 free if you deposit $2k a month. Gets you on their books ss an existing customer with some savings history..
Not sure if it helped but sure wouldn't hurt.
The offer is back, Bank Accounts – Everyday Banking | St.George Bank
 
As you would expect, St George is pretty opaque about the reasons behind their denial of credit, pointing only to their responsible lending criteria, all of which my wife meets.
The are deliberately opaque because they dont want to reveal exactly the reason so that you dont manipulate applications in the future to work around it.

and secondly, they have given you a 'not=negotiable' answer, they made their decision and dont want to waste any time discussing back and forth and explaining/arguing. Credit card lending is a mass market industry, automated assessments, fast processing, very little human time involved. Any future discussions on your application would waste more time than they spent on it in the first place, and involve more people, slowing down their processes.

At this stage, the plan is for my wife to take our bundle of docs and story down to the local branch in the hope that they might be able to point us in the right direction. Not holding our breath and expecting to just have to cop this in the chin though unfortunately.

If you are an existing high value customer, that will work. If not, then they have nothing to gain by spending any time with you, and branch staff dont have any influence over credit card decisions.

If you have potential to be a high value customer with STG by all means present that, but they wont be doing any deals with you on a credit card until you bring the other business in.
 
If you are an existing high value customer, that will work. If not, then they have nothing to gain by spending any time with you, and branch staff dont have any influence over credit card decisions.

If you have potential to be a high value customer with STG by all means present that, but they wont be doing any deals with you on a credit card until you bring the other business in.

Some people might not like the truth laid so bare, but this accords with my experience, 100%.
 
Same situation with me conditionally approved, then denied. I thought it was because I cancelled my Westpac card on the same day and they are practically the same bank. If you are looking for a quick 80k Velocity points do the ANZ travel adventures offer through points hack. Had the points in the bank the week after spending the $1,500.
 
I daresay it had 100% nothing to do with your Westpac card cancellation, as I was able to apply and be approved for both the St George amplify card as well as the Westpac (Visa + Amex) bundle whilst a WBC business account under my name was overdrawn to the tune of 5K due to one of life's little admin errors, but more to the point, I believe that a cross-institution sharing of data is extremely unlikely and probably prohibited by statute regardless of the ownership of the institutions, I also find that an institution rarely pays much attention to your banking relationship with them during a retail card assessment unless it is a significantly bad situation or the card you are applying for is a high value product.
 
Why bother with all the pay slips. And different income streams.

Just declare selfemployeed, and then all you have to provide is your tax return.
 
Why bother with all the pay slips. And different income streams.
Just declare selfemployeed, and then all you have to provide is your tax return.

if you declare self employed, and have no ABN, the application will likely be rejected due to incorrect information given
 
I applied for a bank of Melbourne offer similar to this and was rejected :( Ouch. Conditionally approved and then declined.

My income is decent and my everyday offset account also had a really high balance.

Shame. I'll now have to wait a few more months before I apply for a new card to not affect my credit rating.

I had some hiccups with my initial application. They said my address was entered incorrectly - instead of Melbourne VIC 3000 apparently I entered Melbourne VIC 2000. Spent half an hour on the line with them to rectify this.

Then called today a month since my application asking them what the status was to be told they sent my rejection letter to my residential address in NSW from 7 years ago. :mad:
 
if you declare self employed, and have no ABN, the application will likely be rejected due to incorrect information given

I've been "self-employed" for over 10 years or so in various forms.

When I contracted with multiple clients thru my payroll agency, I was enrolled as an PAYG employee with this payroll agency in the middle and and was never declined for any CC where as the payroll agency managed all the invoicing, insurances and other admin headaches for me while I was responsible of getting the sales and work in - hallmarks of "self-employed".

Self-employed status does not necessarily mean ABN is required and there are no reputable payroll agencies who engage sole traders.

In fact ATO has been cracking down hard on "sham contracting" where "employees" have been signed up as sole traders who are also not even entitled to ABN in first place per ATO rules - e.g. working for one client and who should have been employees per the rules.

There is a fine line vs casual employee and contractor, I would argue that all temps are contractors and could be in many cases classified as self-employed - either as an employee or thru ABN via agency or directly.
 
There is a fine line vs casual employee and contractor, I would argue that all temps are contractors and could be in many cases classified as self-employed - either as an employee or thru ABN via agency or directly.

I understand what you are saying but your argument counts for nought, because there is nobody to tell. Its what is in the credit providers automatic assessing systems that counts, and the distinction between Self Employed and PAYG is explicit . For the most part there is no negotiation with them, nor will their system report why an application is rejected.

I am just pointing out an obvious anomaly that occurs in this circumstance. If you want more hassles, describe yourself as S/E if you do not have an ABN.
 
I understand what you are saying but your argument counts for nought, because there is nobody to tell. Its what is in the credit providers automatic assessing systems that counts, and the distinction between Self Employed and PAYG is explicit . For the most part there is no negotiation with them, nor will their system report why an application is rejected.

I am just pointing out an obvious anomaly that occurs in this circumstance. If you want more hassles, describe yourself as S/E if you do not have an ABN.

Says who?

There are always "hassles" when it comes to banks,

I've personally never experienced any more "hassles" by declaring being as self-employed and having incomes listed under the PAYG section without any ABNs.

Maybe it had something to do regarding the dollar figures they saw on my tax returns :oops:
 
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While annoying, if they don't want you why bother with them if you don't mind me asking? I'm just about to close my last two accounts with them as I think their overall service is poor. The only STG person to ever ask why I closed previous accounts with them including 2 mortgages was the teller when I went in the branch to close things and this is after telling the customer call centre if they didn't honor their comment on calling back to sort the problem I would have to go elsewhere.

Banks can't even do what they say they will to your face.
 
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