1. Home
  2. Business & Finance
  3. Financial Planning
photo of Jeremy Vohwinkle
Jeremy's Financial Planning Blog

By Jeremy Vohwinkle, About.com Guide to Financial Planning

Being Turned Down for a Loan or Credit Card

Tuesday December 4, 2007
When you are turned down for a loan, it means that someone, somewhere, has reviewed your application and found something that tells them that you may not be able to repay the amount that you wish to borrow. These decisions are either based on trained people at the local level, or educated guesses based on past credit history and the likelihood of default. It is important to remember that these decisions are not handed down because a company doesn’t like you, they are simply trying to lend money to people with the greatest likelihood of repaying.

Find Out Why You Were Denied

If you are denied a loan or credit card you need to find out why. When you receive that letter stating you were not approved, there are generally instructions on how to obtain your credit report for free. You are entitled to a copy of your report when you are denied a loan, so this is a perfect time to take a look at it if you haven’t in a while. Sometimes the lender will even provide an explanation as to why your application was denied.

Resolve the Problem

Once you have determined the reason for being denied, it is time to fix the problem. Is your credit score is low simply because you have some late payments? Then you need to focus on getting current with everything and continue to make regular payments. Maybe your score is low because all of your credit lines are close to maxed out. In this case you need to work at lowering the balances.

Whatever the reason is, it is up to you to find out what is holding you back and work to resolve it. Too many people simply get frustrated when they are turned down, get mad at the lender, and never take a proactive approach toward determining why they made that decision and what they can do to improve it. It could be just a simple mistake on your credit report or it could be a sign of a severe credit problem. You won’t be able to address the issue until you know what it is.

Take control of your credit:

Comments

No comments yet. Leave a Comment

Leave a Comment

Line and paragraph breaks are automatic. Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title="">, <b>, <i>, <strike>

Explore Financial Planning
About.com Special Features

Start your new business on the right foot with these helpful tips. More >

Easy steps to take control of your credit card debt. More >

  1. Home
  2. Business & Finance
  3. Financial Planning

©2009 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.

All rights reserved.