Credit card applications

On this page, you can learn about credit card applications, including what you need before you apply, and how credit checks work and could affect you.

Eligibility criteria

What do I need to apply?

How long will the application take?

How might an unsuccessful application affect me?

What can I do to avoid an unsuccessful application?

How does the credit check work?

Eligibility criteria

To apply, the main card holder must:

• be 18 or over
• be a UK resident
• be in full-time or part-time employment, self-employed or retired
• be earning a minimum gross annual income (GAI) of £10,000
• have held a Co-operative Bank or smile current account for at least 7 months (Cashminder accounts are not eligible)
• If applying for a Co-operative members credit card, they must be a Co-op Member.

And the main card holder must:

• not have had any Defaults, County Court Judgements (CCJs), entered into any Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) or Trust Deeds, nor been declared bankrupt within the last 6 years
• not be in arrears and not have missed more than 2 payments on any credit agreement in the last 6 months

Approval is subject to status and based on a credit check and an assessment of your personal circumstances.

How long applications take

The application form should take you about 10 minutes to complete if you have all your information to hand.

We’ll let you know the outcome of your application within 5 business days.

What happens and how you might be affected if your application is not successful

Every full credit check will show on your credit file (whether the check is successful or not). This can negatively affect your credit score, especially if running multiple full checks in a short time. This can make it harder to get credit in the future.

However, we’ll run a soft check first, which will not show on your credit file. If you’re unlikely to be approved, we’ll let you know and ask what you want to do next.

If your application is not successful, we’ll let you know why. It could be due to information we’ve received in the credit check, or information we already have about any of your existing accounts with us.

How to avoid an unsuccessful application

Before you apply, check your credit score to check how likely you are to be successful.

After you apply, we’ll run a soft check first, which will not affect your credit file. If the check suggests you will not be successful, we’ll let you know so you can decide.

Read about how to check and improve your credit score

How the credit check works

When you apply, we run a soft credit check first. This will not be registered on your credit file with credit reference agencies and will not be seen by other lenders. We’ll tell you if we’re unlikely to offer you a credit card or the credit limit you requested.

You can then decide whether to stop your application. If you continue, we’ll run a full (‘hard’) credit check before our final decision on approving your application. This:

• will be registered on your credit file and seen by other lenders, whether or not you proceed with the agreement
• can negatively affect your credit score, especially if there are multiple full checks in a short time - this can make it harder to get credit in the future