At the end of the day, we are lending other Members’ money and I’m sure that as a Member you would want us to be making the right decisions from an informed position.
Your credit report plays a big part in determining whether or not you can access important financial products. However, the credit check that we carry out is developed for community banks, so it takes into account that someone might not have the perfect credit history, it’s more about what you have done since to ensure your credit history is improving.
Having a poor credit history will not necessarily stop you from accessing a loan; instead, a member of staff will use our own criteria to assess how risky a customer you’re likely to be. This means it’s possible that while one lender will reject you for a loan, we might accept you.
Credit reference agencies simply supply data to us and the Loans Officer will use this information to assess your application. As well as credit reference agency data, we will take into account any existing information we might hold about you for current or previous borrowing, along with the details that you’ve submitted in your application. We might also ask for further information to aid this decision which could include recent bank statements.
If we do decline you we will refer you to Experian so that you can find out what information is contained in your report. In some cases the information can be updated and may enable you to apply again to us.
