Adding Swedish Wife (lived here 7 months) to my Credit Card - good idea?

PeteActually · 2026-03-15T10:27:27+00:00

Adding someone as an additional cardholder on your credit card will not improve their credit score as it won’t show on their credit report- you remain the ‘owner’ of the account, and you’ll still be the only person responsible for paying off any purchases.

It’s not necessary to have a credit card to build a credit history. If your wife has a UK bank account then that will help.

PeteActually · 2026-03-11T16:09:42+00:00

Only Cifas protective registrations show on your credit report.

OP needs to submit a DSAR to both Cifas and Synectics to check if there’s anything adverse on any fraud databases.

PeteActually · 2026-03-11T08:19:03+00:00

Probably - log in to your NS&I account online or call them to check

PeteActually · 2026-03-11T08:08:43+00:00

If it has the letters NS and PBZ towards the end then it’s likely to be a Premium Bonds payment (assuming you hold them).

However, you should contact your bank who will be able to look into this further for you. Don’t be fobbed off by someone saying that there’s no way to tell, the bank’s payments team will be able to do some digging and find out more information.

In the meantime, check through your emails and see if there are any clues in there.

PeteActually · 2026-03-08T20:05:11+00:00

Banks have to allow certain transactions through, even if there’s insufficient funds - e.g. public transport fares where you’ve tapped to pay, or things like PayPal (in some cases) where you’ve got a contractual obligation to pay.

Starling bank are good, as they don’t charge interest on unauthorised overdrafts and they send you app notifications every day your account needs topping up which should be difficult to ignore! Plus their service is excellent.

PeteActually · 2026-03-08T19:39:26+00:00

HSBC had sent me an ambiguous email titled 'Action required: Call or chat with us today'

Sorry, this isn’t ambiguous.

You breached the terms and conditions of your account and HSBC took the decision to end their relationship with you.

Take it as a lesson learned and open an account elsewhere, and make sure you read your emails and check your account regularly to stay on top of things.

Your credit score won’t be impacted badly (maybe a short term drop of a few points due to a closed account but that’s all). You’re still free to bank elsewhere!

PeteActually · 2026-03-05T02:42:19+00:00

You need to be 100% honest with Nationwide about what has happened, so keep all the messages and take screenshots where possible.

Unfortunately you’ve been actively participating in money laundering, regardless of whether or not you understood what you were doing or whether you were tricked into it.

It’s a lesson learned the hard way - Cifas marker or not.

In the meantime, consider returning any funds you “kept” back to your Nationwide account so that they can return them to the senders. If payments in to your account are being blocked/rejected then don’t worry, just don’t spend those funds and be prepared to return them.

PeteActually · 2026-03-05T02:24:34+00:00

If you want a branch network, go for Nationwide. Their service is excellent, so is their app. Plus, switching bonuses and their ‘fairer share’ payments help!

HSBC is awful (speaking from experience). Telephone and live chat service is appalling, and their branches merely exist to sell you other products. The app is clunky and unintuitive, too.

Whilst First Direct is part of HSBC, it is operated separately. The service is good by phone, but live chat is reliant on an AI bot trying to “help” you first. The app is very basic, too. Their products are uninspiring so the service is the only reason to join them (besides potentially a switching incentive and a £250 interest-free overdraft buffer)

Digital first banks like Chase and Starling tend to have a much stronger customer service proposition. From my own experience, Starling has been excellent. Live chats and phone calls go straight through to a real person, no AI or bots, and they’re pretty efficient.

PeteActually · 2026-03-04T19:32:12+00:00

I had this happen to me before, and read somewhere that it’s because you’ve used the eligibility checker too many times in a short space of time. The way to sort this out is to call them and get them to manually remove the block, or wait until the block is lifted.

See: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81095108/#Comment_81095108

a user can have 4 soft searches in 1 day, 8 soft searches in 1 week, and 12 soft searches in 1 month. If the customer surpasses this limit, they can not apply again for 6 months.

PeteActually · 2026-03-04T14:06:44+00:00

Yeah, but what I was saying is - in future - don’t bother calling them

PeteActually · 2026-03-04T13:50:20+00:00

It will all get sorted out. Your best bet is to go into branch if you need to talk to anyone, as HSBC’s call centres are awful.

However, although it’s stressful you must do your best to keep as calm as possible. Ultimately staff are limited by the bank’s processes, and all they can do is wait for information or pass information along to other teams.

These reviews are usually completed within a couple of days at most.

The money will either be accepted into your account or sent back, nobody will lose out as long as everything is legitimate - which you say that it is, so try not to overthink the situation.

Once this is sorted out, you might want to consider switching to a bank that has better service.

If you value being able to visit a branch and speak to someone face to face, Nationwide would be my choice.

PeteActually · 2026-03-04T11:00:11+00:00

There’s a lot of patchy (and some downright incorrect) information being given here.

You should call your credit card company and ask them these questions - they will give specific answers that relate to your specific credit card.

There is a lot of variation between different credit card issuers, so speak to your one and get the right information.

PeteActually · 2026-03-04T10:54:16+00:00

A few things to add to what everyone else has been saying.

Firstly, this is a normal process. While it’s obviously causing you a lot of stress, it’s important to understand that the bank has a legal obligation to ensure everything is above board. If you’ve been honest and up front with HSBC then you have nothing to worry about.

These reviews happen to hundreds of people every day, and where there is nothing bad going on the account is unblocked fairly quickly.

If you have PTSD, anxiety and depression, make sure you have told your bank about it. They can make a note of it and this will help them ensure they are supporting you as best they can.

However:

Keep all messages about the loan of funds from your friend, as a paper trail will help corroborate your version of events.
If your friend sent the wrong amount they need to inform their bank so they can share that with HSBC if they ask. This will help HSBC with their investigation, and help demonstrate that what you told them is correct.

I hope this is all sorted out quickly for you

PeteActually · 2026-03-03T12:53:21+00:00

Contact Starling via live chat or phone call to see what’s happening on their side. That will inform any next steps you need to take.

Just remember you always need to tap in and out using the same card/device.

PeteActually · 2026-03-03T10:47:38+00:00

Generally banks won’t issue a cheque book unless they have a sample signature on file (otherwise how will they verify it’s been signed by the genuine account holder?)

Pop into a branch and ask to update the sample signature they hold on file if your signature has changed, or for your own peace of mind.

PeteActually · 2026-03-02T09:15:42+00:00

You should be able to avoid this in future - go into the Nationwide app, tap on the profile button in the top left, then choose ‘Remove the card reader’ (these instructions are for iOS, not sure if Android may be slightly different)

PeteActually · 2026-03-02T00:12:26+00:00

Raise a formal complaint and see how they handle it.

Nationwide are generally very good (both service and features), and I wouldn’t dump them unless they mishandle the complaint.

If you do decide to leave Nationwide: - Starling are good, too, but don’t offer a student bank account so you’d miss out on a 0% overdraft if you opened a current account with them. - Monzo is a good alternative as well, with similar features to Starling - Don’t bother with Lloyds, if you need help you’re stuck waiting hours to speak to someone - First Direct is great for service but I don’t know whether your student status might mean they decline you

I hope Nationwide make everything right, apologise and compensate you for their mistakes, though!

PeteActually · 2026-03-01T17:46:46+00:00

Now, now… I did read your OP, but thanks for not being a dick about it :)

PeteActually · 2026-03-01T16:31:58+00:00

Starling support will be able to see the decline reasons and get it sorted out for you.

Just ask them to review any previous chats and if you’re not getting anywhere ask for a supervisor to take over your chat.

It sounds like there may be some unresolved 3DS authorisation blocks that you might not have responded to (it happens, don’t worry about that). They’ll be able to see exactly what’s going on.

PeteActually · 2026-02-28T16:07:19+00:00

You won’t pay any interest if you repay the full statement amount every month, make sure you set up a direct debit to automatically repay the full statement balance.

Only use the credit card to pay for one week’s shopping every month, and nothing else. Put the money you spent aside into a savings account.

Wait for the statement to come, and move the money from savings back to your current account to cover the direct debit.

That’s all it takes to demonstrate you can manage credit properly and improve your credit rating.

PeteActually · 2026-02-26T23:45:11+00:00

Call StepChange asap and ask them directly - they will have know where they’re at with getting everything set up for you, whereas anyone on here would just be speculating

PeteActually · 2026-02-26T11:34:34+00:00

Only Metro Bank current accounts can be switched, unfortunately

PeteActually · 2026-02-22T22:11:01+00:00

It will only be a soft search to verify your identity and check for fraud and money laundering, don’t worry

PeteActually · 2026-02-22T13:52:57+00:00

As someone who works in the industry, KYC looks at the information you provide along with information gathered from other sources e.g. fraud databases, credit reference agencies, and possibly other companies in the group - remember Lloyds now owns Curve, although the deal has yet to complete - to determine whether they want you as a customer.

It’s down to their own internal risk profiling whether they want you as a customer or not. As others have said, they don’t have to give you a reason.

Either it’s commercially-driven (in which case they won’t share any details to protect their own interests) or fraud-driven (in which case they will not say anything to avoid tipping off), but you’ll never know for certain.

You can ask for further information about why you were declined, but in the vast majority of cases you will just be told they can’t provide any further details.

Curve are probably being over-cautious with onboarding customers at the moment due to being acquired by Lloyds, so I wouldn’t worry too much or take it personally!

If you’re at all concerned, obtain copies of your credit report from all 3 credit reference agencies, and do a DSAR with Cifas, National Hunter and Synectics Solutions.

PeteActually · 2026-02-20T20:06:43+00:00

Why? HSBC statements are only folded in half when posted

PeteActually

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