What your credit score really means

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  • The_Boss
    The_Boss Posts: 5,849
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    Since this thread was made a sticky there have been far fewer "my credit score is..." threads. Thanks mods :)
  • i have two bank accounts, both current accounts, one with lloyds and one with barclays.

    The barclays doesnt have an overdraft but the lloyds account has a £1000 overdraft which is not being used.

    Will having another bank account with an overdraft decrease or increase my credit score as i dont use the lloyds account at all, and im wondering whether i should close it.

    Thanks
  • The_Boss
    The_Boss Posts: 5,849
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    tomtom22 wrote: »
    Will having another bank account with an overdraft decrease or increase my credit score as i dont use the lloyds account at all, and im wondering whether i should close it.

    Thanks

    If you read the thread you will see that you don't have a credit score.
  • diceydeb
    diceydeb Posts: 157
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    Credit scoring is a waste of time really but I keep my equifax file open as its free even though I havent used my cap.one card for ages( no incentives or rewards) and it lets me know if anything dodgy is happening with my finances.
  • This thread topic all makes sense to me after getting regular updates with Equifax. Over the past 5 years I've done my absolute best to work hard, save, pay off debts and try to repair my credit after messing it up when I was younger, and yet despite doing this my credit rating has not improved one bit according to Equifax, would absolutely love to know how.

    I've just got an update and my score has just dropped 25 points over the weekend, despite zero changes?! lol, who on earth is making these decisions and what on earth are they based on?? I can only imagine they must of known I went into town getting drunk Saturday night and it would have an effect on my paying off bills this week! Absolute joke!
  • bsms1147
    bsms1147 Posts: 2,261
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    Either something negative on your file happened recently, or something positive on your file got further back in time (tends to happen, time only moves forwards).

    Alternatively the random-number generator just picked a slightly lower number this week.
  • Ok, I get the whole message that keeps being bumped as ' you don't have a credit score' etc, but I just wanted to ask something as I'm quite concerned! I'm 26 and have my car on finance and have never missed a payment. I also have a small personal loan to pay off my university overdraft and my wage is around £35,000 a year. Other than that, I have a mobile phone contract for myself and my partner. We were going to apply for finance on a DFS sofa as I would not notice the amount we'd have to pay each month. ( Before anyone comments on the quality of dfs or why don't I just buy one outright, that's not the advice I'm asking for. We are getting married in August, so a finance deal suits us as there are other expenses to consider and with 0% it seems ok. ) However, I checked my credit score with Experian and it's really low! I don't understand this, as anything I've borrowed I've always paid off. I'm not registered on the electoral roll and so have applied online to do that tonight. The negatives against me are that I haven't had credit for a significantly long time to be able to produce a historical trend and they've stated that because of my car and loan, I have 'non- mortgage' debt. Also, I noticed that an error made by orange with a previous wifi contract was on there as they had it down that I had paid late when actually they didn't log my cancellation and so tried to charge me. It was resolved with them pretty quickly and they credited the account for this. I rang them today and they've agreed to send a letter to their credit department or something to get that removed from my credit report. Will that work??
    My friend has a ccj and we checked his credit report at the same time (he's 35 so a bit older than me) and he has a better credit score than I do, which seems grossly unfair!
    I hope I haven't given too much personal information! Basically, what I want to know is:
    Do you think I will get credit with dfs?
    How much should I expect registering to vote to improve my score?
    Is my credit score representative of anything, or is it really as you say, that I don't have a credit score and it just depends?
  • Gaz83
    Gaz83 Posts: 4,047
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    Do you think I will get credit with dfs?
    No-one but DFS will be able to tell you this.
    How much should I expect registering to vote to improve my score?
    It may boost your Experian score by a few points, which ultimately means nothing, because...
    Is my credit score representative of anything, or is it really as you say, that I don't have a credit score and it just depends?
    It's not representative of anything. It's given to you by a credit reference agency in order to encourage people to subscribe to them to keep their score high. It's not seen by any lender, nor does it give any indication of employment status or income, two pretty big factors in determining someone's credit worthiness.
    "Facism arrives as your friend. It will restore your honour, make you feel proud, protect your house, give you a job, clean up the neighbourhood, remind you of how great you once were, clear out the venal and the corrupt, remove anything you feel is unlike you... [it] doesn't walk in saying, "our programme means militias, mass imprisonments, transportations, war and persecution."
  • Exile_geordie
    Exile_geordie Posts: 5,094 Forumite
    So I should just pay £2 for my credit report and leave it at that for the year then and not sign up to anyone?


    Not that I want anything mind you but would be nice to know I guess.
    Dont rock the boat
    Dont rock the boat ,baby
  • Both Lloyds and Bank of Scotland have recently used a change on my credit score to increase my credit card interest rate by almost 20% APR. The ridiculous thing is that the change on my credit score, which is a negative as far as Experian are concerned, is the fact that I have paid off my mortgage. I remain a homeowner, but I no longer have a mortgage to pay. Now any rational human being would assume that that would be a good thing. I have an extra £500+ per month now. But Experian say this is a negative and the credit card companies have been very quick to jump on that one and use it as an excuse to increase my rates. Trying to speak to the credit card companies is a joke. All I heard was "computer say no". Incredible. So your credit score may mean nothing but the banks will use them to bend to their liking.
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