My credit card application has been turned down

Donald MacInnes was rejected because some of the numbers on the photocopy of his passport were not legible

(Corbis)

Last week, I mentioned that I had taken the wholly terrifying step of applying for a new credit card. Having been a bit of a financial toddler the last time I owned plastic, I got into a silly hell of a mess and ran up about eight grand in debt to the bank in question.

I basically acted like Joe Hollywood for a year. Everything was on me. I was so deluded. And it's not as if my profligacy was given impetus by my being unemployed or earning a pittance, meaning I thought I should treat myself for once. No, I was earning more money than I have ever earned in my life. I think I used the credit card so much because I was (and still am) a profoundly lazy man and it was often easier to pay for something with my credit card than go and find an ATM. This was in the days before the widespread arrival of debit cards, you see.

I know what you're thinking: what a tool. Yes, I know. But I guess we all make mistakes and thankfully I learned from mine, thanks – as I mentioned last week – in large part to the intervention of my now wife, who has a handle on/control over her finances which is borderline Scottish. Glory be to her.

These days I am financially well again and, due to having been embarrassed in the United States in November when I tried to rent a car without a credit card, I thought it time that I got hold of one for just such necessities. When last we spoke, I had just applied for a … well, let's call it Borclaycard. I filled in all the forms and sent them the requested photocopy of my driving licence and passport and sat down to wait.

I was fairly confident. I was a homeowner, in a decent job, with a near perfect credit rating (when buying our house, our mortgage adviser had gone through my "books" with forensic aplomb and made sure there was nothing that could trip me up).

Jump to last Saturday and I got a letter from Borclaycard saying … No.

Huh? What the …? Their letter didn't even say why. It said the reason was either that there wasn't enough credit information on me at our new address (impossible, as we own the bloody place) or that I hadn't sent them the proper documentation. This was baloney as well, as I had sent everything they requested.

I called the customer services number and found out that they had rejected me because some of the numbers on the photocopy of my passport were not legible. I spluttered: "Why didn't you just ask me to resend them? I gave you my email address! You have my phone number. Your first response is just to refuse credit, thereby tainting my hard-won snow-white credit rating? Are you aware of how nuts that sounds?"

To his credit, the chap on the phone agreed that this was not the best way for a bank to behave. He asked me to resend the documentation "and we'll try again".

Fingers crossed …