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Letting agency "credit checks" and experian scores - fair?
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Have just phoned Experian to be told that my letting agent will get a full report showing my defaults.When I challenged him that he should not be giving this out as the agent is not lending money he said they would give the full report. I do have some defaults due to illness but am paying off at reduced payments. We are desperate to move to a cheaper house and have never missed a rent payment but I am now really concerned. No CCJs or bankruptcy. I wish there was somewhere to find out just what info the credit agencies should be giving out to letting agents0
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Daydream11 wrote: »Have just phoned Experian to be told that my letting agent will get a full report showing my defaults.When I challenged him that he should not be giving this out as the agent is not lending money he said they would give the full report. I do have some defaults due to illness but am paying off at reduced payments. We are desperate to move to a cheaper house and have never missed a rent payment but I am now really concerned. No CCJs or bankruptcy. I wish there was somewhere to find out just what info the credit agencies should be giving out to letting agents
they should not be able to see defaultsExperian_company_representative wrote: »Credit history data is only visible to lenders who take part in the data sharing. Landlords, letting agents etc do not take part so they cannot see your credit accounts. All they can see is publicly available data such as court judgments, bankruptcies, IVAs, DROs.
As a result, a default cannot affect an application to rent a property.Experian_company_representative wrote: »Landlords, letting agents etc can only carry out limited credit checks, seeing only public data such as CCJs, bankruptcies etc. They cannot see your personal credit history data such as loans and cards.
JamesExperian_company_representative wrote: »Landlords and letting agent cannot look at your credit history, just the public record data on your credit report such as court judgments and bankruptcies. So as long as you have none of those you should be fine. They might also check your name and address on the electoral roll.
Only lenders can carry out full credit checks, which they usually build into a credit score. The score you can get from Experian is a guide, as lenders' scores will vary. Landlords do not calculate credit scores - they're simply checking that you have no accute financial problems.
James JonesExperian_company_representative wrote: »Letting agents and landlords can only access the public information on your credit report, so I've you've had no court judgments or insolvencies you shouldn't have a problem with credit checks. Your actual credit history data is only visible to banks and other lenders.
James JonesExperian_company_representative wrote: »Landlords and letting agents are only allowed to see public data (court judgments, insolvencies, etc) when they carry out a credit check. Only lenders can see your private credit history records - which would probably include evidence of your DMP.
James JonesExperian_company_representative wrote: »Landlords and letting agents should not have access to credit account records, or scores derived from credit account records. The risk scores we provide to landlords are based on public data.
brians daughter - if you'd like to share further details of the information provided by the letting agent you quote (including their name) we'll happily look into it: customerrelations@uk.experian.com
Thanks
James JonesExperian_company_representative wrote: »Bear in mind that landlords and letting agents can only see limited information on any credit check they carry out. Basically they can only access public records such as court judgments and bankruptcies. Your credit history (cards, loans etc) can only be seen by lenders.
James0 -
Daydream11 wrote: »Have just phoned Experian to be told that my letting agent will get a full report showing my defaults.When I challenged him that he should not be giving this out as the agent is not lending money he said they would give the full report. I do have some defaults due to illness but am paying off at reduced payments. We are desperate to move to a cheaper house and have never missed a rent payment but I am now really concerned. No CCJs or bankruptcy. I wish there was somewhere to find out just what info the credit agencies should be giving out to letting agents
You are right. Letting agents and landlords do not contribute account performance data to the credit defence agencies so any checks they make are restricted to public data such as judgments.
If you'd be kind enough to send details of when you called etc we'll make sure the agent is retrained in this area -> customerrelations@uk.experian.com. Thanks and sorry for the worry.
James“Official Company Representative
I am an official company representative of Experian. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to queries about the company, so that I can help solve issues. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. I am not allowed to tout for business at all. If you believe I am please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com This does NOT imply any form of approval of my company or its products by MSE"
Posts by James Jones, Neil Stone, Stuart Storey & Joe Standen0 -
Letting agents IMO should see all defaults so they can see the whole picture of the person that they'll be renting their house to.
Would I rent to someone with defaults 'No' I wouldn't so in theory letting agents credit checks are actually pointless.0 -
Letting agents IMO should see all defaults so they can see the whole picture of the person that they'll be renting their house to.
Would I rent to someone with defaults 'No' I wouldn't so in theory letting agents credit checks are actually pointless.
I thought that, I mean really? Why would you rent if you knew someone wasn't managing their money. In default, on a DMP win every possibly of rent arrears, bankruptcy, etc. It's a huge risk I would say.0 -
It's a valid point. However, credit data is shared on a strict reciprocal basis so landlords could only access others' customer data if they themselves starting sharing tenants' rent payments, and if the existing data sharing community accepted their membership. I certainly wouldn't rule out this happening in the future. But we're not there yet so landlords and their agents are currently restricted to public credit report data only.
James“Official Company Representative
I am an official company representative of Experian. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to queries about the company, so that I can help solve issues. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. I am not allowed to tout for business at all. If you believe I am please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com This does NOT imply any form of approval of my company or its products by MSE"
Posts by James Jones, Neil Stone, Stuart Storey & Joe Standen0 -
ive been renting 13 years... i have a good job, stable and never missed a rent payment.
my credit report is abysmal, genuinely awful.. should i not be allowed to rent my property based on the fact i have spent over £100,000 on rent in 13 years and never missed a payment?
should landlords say to me - well.. you missed a lot of mobile phone contracts payments but you always paid your rent.. your priorities are clearly right but.. we cant take your money because you forgot about tmobile in 2009..
landlords do not need to know your credit history... they need to know your rent history..0 -
ive been renting 13 years... i have a good job, stable and never missed a rent payment.
my credit report is abysmal, genuinely awful.. should i not be allowed to rent my property based on the fact i have spent over £100,000 on rent in 13 years and never missed a payment?
should landlords say to me - well.. you missed a lot of mobile phone contracts payments but you always paid your rent.. your priorities are clearly right but.. we cant take your money because you forgot about tmobile in 2009..
landlords do not need to know your credit history... they need to know your rent history..
What a load of junk of a statement .
Foolish post IMO so when I go and get credit for a £600 bed lets say I've just had 10 defaults on my file should I say to DFS we'll the missed payments & defaults shouldn't matter as I paid my last Bed off without missing a payment.
Or I miss loads of payments on a loan and apply for a credit card should I say sorry but I haven't paid my loan off on time but I did my last credit card!!!0 -
ive been renting 13 years... i have a good job, stable and never missed a rent payment.
my credit report is abysmal, genuinely awful.. should i not be allowed to rent my property based on the fact i have spent over £100,000 on rent in 13 years and never missed a payment?
should landlords say to me - well.. you missed a lot of mobile phone contracts payments but you always paid your rent.. your priorities are clearly right but.. we cant take your money because you forgot about tmobile in 2009..
landlords do not need to know your credit history... they need to know your rent history..
I disagree. I think CCJ's are mainly down to how lazy or not your creditor is. I don't think the risk changes. If a person has loads of defaults vs CCJ's.
It makes them much higher risk for rent default and bankruptcy. Which is why people with bad credit records littered with defaults, don't get anymore credit.
I wouldn't be wanting to rent my house to someone with no idea what I was getting into if I were a landlord.
Agents will ask for a guarantor if you have outstanding bad debt via CCJ's. So I can;'t see why it should be different with defaults.
I wonder if landlords know the credit check is actually pointless. Not a sign of credit management.0 -
What a load of junk of a statement .
Foolish post IMO so when I go and get credit for a £600 bed lets say I've just had 10 defaults on my file should I say to DFS we'll the missed payments & defaults shouldn't matter as I paid my last Bed off without missing a payment.
Or I miss loads of payments on a loan and apply for a credit card should I say sorry but I haven't paid my loan off on time but I did my last credit card!!!
No because when in a position of debt or struggling to make payments, rent is always a priority.. people need and want a roof over their head so make sure rent is covered.
if your buying beds on credit with low affordability, CREDIT should be assessed on CREDIT history.
However i have never taken out CREDIT to live in an apartment - i think im trying to say CREDIT is the key and if you have CREDIT problems then taking out more CREDIT is not an answer.
however - CREDIT problems should not effect your housing situation as it is a priority that doesnt require any CREDIT.
foolish to disagree imho0
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