Over 3.5m applications for mortgages, personal loans and credit cards were turned down in 2005, as a number of financial services companies tightened up their lending policies.

The most stringent reining in of lending policy came from credit card companies that had previously spent millions offering zero per cent balance transfer deals to attract custom.

Around 1.7m credit card applications were turned down in the past year, and almost 1.5m personal loans and 260,000 mortgage applications were rejected, according to Moneyexpert.com.