If you have applied for a loan before checking your credit score you may have been denied a loan if your scores were too low. The bank may have written to you explaining the situation but they normally wouldn’t have told you what the score was. You would have had to contact one of the credit reference agencies to find out what your exact score was. Both Experian and Equifax offer online services where you can check your credit report. If you don’t want to sign up for their service, just write them and ask for your credit report. It costs about £2 pounds. Below is a sample loan declined letter that you would receive from the bank.
___________________________________________________

Dear Ms or Mr

Re: Application for a Personal Loan

Thank you for your request for a personal loan. After careful consideration, you application has been unsuccessful.

Our decision was based on an analysis of all the information that you provided at the time of your application, using a system called credit scoring. The credit scoring system allocates points to your application details as well as information received from a credit reference agency. We then add the points together to arrive at an overall score.

In your case, the total of points for your application was below the minimum required at this time. I am unable to provide you with any further information regarding your individual application. However, I can provide you with a copy of our leaflet which explains out credit scoring process in more detail.

Should you require a copy, please telephone me or contact your local branch.

Yours sincerely,

Signature

Sender’s Name
Manager Customer Underwriting

___________________________________________________

You could call the bank and ask them which credit reference agency they have used so that you can look at the report and hopefully find out what the problem was. There’s no point asking the bank what their criteria or minimum score is because in most cases, they won’t tell you.

If you need more information about writing effective letters, please visit the Cover letter Samples website. Additional free credit letter samples are available at Credit Letters UK.