Which UK credit cards share a lender

Why it matters

On a comparison site these look like separate applications. A brand that is only a credit broker passes your application to the lender its small print names, and that lender applies its own criteria and runs its own search of your credit file. Each full application leaves a hard search on the file, so two brands from one lender cost two searches for what is one decision.

For someone new to the UK this matters more than for most. The usual reason an American is declined is a thin UK credit file rather than citizenship, and a thin file reads the same to a lender whichever brand it arrives through. Two applications to different lenders are two decisions; two to the same lender are one. The credit card page has each brand's criteria in full, including the two ways in with no UK credit file.

One lender's brands do not always carry the same verdict below: Capital One (Europe) plc and Nationwide Building Society each lend under brands that differ. The verdict follows what each brand's own page publishes, and the brands publish different criteria. The lender behind them still makes the decision.