Chris
I work in finance, I'm afraid your wrong very misguided on how credit reference agencies work with businesses and facilitate or help businesses come to a decision to determine the risk any client or customer is, some merely provide conflicting information between all 3 so being in the as you put it **1%** is false no such thing, you could have 3 credit cards pay them off every month and a fantastic mortgage and still be refused credit for a simple chocolate bar, if you earn £100k have zero debt and apply for a £10k loan highly likely you will be knocked back by all 3 depending on WHICH agency the firm uses, your deemed more a risk when suddenly your seeking money when you have no history of credit applications for them to make a decision based on previous applications, I feel your trying to rub salt into OPs dilemma, he could be in this dilemma where EE internal checks can't determine his risk so they are prepared to risk X AMOUNT as long as X AMOUNT is paid upfront in his case this is unfortunate £500 I am assuming he is on upgrade anytime and not flex pay o would advise him to use add to plan and pay off other device once add to plan is in his hands and go sim only
And yes I don't doubt you have good credit but there is no such thing as AMAZING CREDIT I wouldn't surprised if there's some some ego massaging when OP needs help not reminding about your personal credit circumstances, everyone's credit changes with the markets we go to war the chances of gaining the same credit card you were approved for yesterday TODAY is marginally more difficult, hence why your 1% is just Fictional unfortunately that some believe is correct but really its a myth
