Do banks have to do a credit check when approving credit cards

[I love to travel]

I applied for a credit card yesterday and as an existing number the process took 2 minutes and it was approved on the spot - no requirement to verify income etc as they had already calculated that for me. My question in in the 30 seconds it took to hit send and the screen coming back to say its approved, could they possibly have done a credit score check in that time. Is it mandatory by law? Or as an existing (good) customer can they waive it?

 

[Dr Ralph]

There is no such requirement. Many banks don't bother.

If they did check I would expect to have a lot less than the 10 cards i average each year approved.

 

[burmans]

I applied for a credit card yesterday and as an existing number the process took 2 minutes and it was approved on the spot - no requirement to verify income etc as they had already calculated that for me. My question in in the 30 seconds it took to hit send and the screen coming back to say its approved, could they possibly have done a credit score check in that time. Is it mandatory by law? Or as an existing (good) customer can they waive it?

Not mandatory by law but they do have a responsibility to lend responsibly and best practice would be to credit check, i.e. should the loan subsequently fail there is a possibility you could come back and say you should have checked my ability to pay more closely! This open the possibility you may not have to pay back the loan or invoke hardship clauses.

So while I am sure not everyone credit checks certainly most do, its a risk not to.

 

[glasszon]

In my experience all major banks and AMEX run a credit check on VEDA, I haven't had a single credit card application that isn't reflected in the VEDA report.

Can't imagine it takes that long to run a VEDA query though, you can get your own VEDA score for free online and that only takes ~10 seconds or so after you submit your information.

 

[andye]

Mine have all appeared on Veda. Experian is less complete. Then again I don't get through as many cards as Dr Ralph

 

[I love to travel]

Will check whether there is anything on my VEDA score next month and report back