As a VP at MasterCard, I would like to clarify some of the issues raised.
Fisrtly, historic bad credit at your address does not affect your own access to credit. Indeed, neither does the credit history of those living with you unless there is an established financial dependencyand/or relationship. Finance providers certainly do not instantly decline applications from those with no credit history or electoral roll registration find - these are merely attributes of the decision based upon applying an application score (using a mathematical model known as a scorecard) and/or using a credit bureau score, often together in what is known as a matrix score. The dfference between the two is that a bureau score also includes attributes based upon historical repayment of other credit, the number of credit searches made in a 12 month period etc
I do not know where the default rate of 1 in 4 comes from, but let me assure you this is certainly not the case. Delinquency rates on credit cards and personal loans are about 4%, for car loans about 8% - but the latter includes a high element of non-standard lending, commonly known as 'sub prime'.
One of the reasons for higher delinquency on car loans is due to easier acceptance on the basis that car loans (ie HP as opposed to personal loans) are secured on the car. This is certainly the route someone with less than perfect credit history should follow, in addition to offering to pay a sizeable depost. An alterntive is to provife a guarantor, who legally would be responsible for settlement in the event you default on the loan.
My advice would be ask the finance company why they declined your application - not merly the standard 'based upon credit scoring' but asking for the actual decline code - a code generated for every declinined application, ie the actual reason, based upon bureau information.
