MSE News: MSE launches free Credit Club

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  • I have signed up for this and I have had no problems - everything showing as I would expect it to be - will wait for a month to see what the report will look like.

    I did try to sign up for the free Experian report offered by Barclaycard a year or so ago but they could not find me and wanted me to send them original documents etc so I binned that - but they found me now with no problem and I haven't changed address for years.
  • Raquela
    Raquela Posts: 359 Forumite
    edited 10 September 2016 at 2:59PM
    I'd love to be able to use it the club, but apparently I am one of the few whose data can't be validated by Experian. I have no idea why, all my data is accurate. It's very frustrating, and there seems to be no ability to sort it out, just pretty much a 'sorry you can't use this then'.

    I appreciate that you have to protect against fraud, but when all your data is correct because you really are that person, it's very frustrating. I'm starting to save for a house deposit in the hope of getting a mortgage in 5-6 years, so this is a prime time for me to be using a product like this.

    Edited - I've just cross checked all the information I've put in with my last Experian credit report and it still says I can't be validated...
  • Credit scores are a joke. At the end of the day what matters is: are you accepted for the products you want?

    I have a fairly high income, no defaults, good history with various lenders, am always accepted for the products I apply for and yet my score with all the agencies has always been "fair" to "average" or "good" at most, except for a brief period back in 2010 where I had a 999 Experian score even though I had virtually no history (I returned to the country in 2010 after > 10 years abroad).

    I've had a fair credit score for the whole of this year yet I have received 2 credit increases from Amex in less than 6 months, one just after I took out a 0% PCP loan of just under £10k.

    Let's put it another way. You can have a "perfect" or "very good" credit score along with a good income and therefore affordability and be refused. You can also have a low credit score (according to the agencies, at least) and still get the best deals.

    Totally meaningless.
  • Anthorn
    Anthorn Posts: 4,362
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    Now this is funny: After all the hoo-ha over credit scoring and those predominantly CRAs who provide the service, MSE launches its own service ROFL.

    So does this mean that there is some advantage to credit scores or are they still completely and utterly meaningless and a complete and utter waste of time?

    ROFL
  • jamesd
    jamesd Posts: 26,103
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    edited 10 September 2016 at 8:18PM
    Raquela wrote: »
    I'd love to be able to use it the club, but apparently I am one of the few whose data can't be validated by Experian.
    Experian are planning to make their credit reports available free next week (use a private browsing window to avoid using up one of your limited number of views per month) so when they do that you could try there and they may be able to provide support in sorting out what the problem is if that doesn't work either.

    If the link still doesn't work, try this one via Google.
  • jamesd
    jamesd Posts: 26,103
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    Anthorn wrote: »
    So does this mean that there is some advantage to credit scores or are they still completely and utterly meaningless and a complete and utter waste of time?
    They never have been useless and a waste of time. MSE's own articles on them have debunked that misleading claim for ages now. So it's no surprise that MSE would offer them. What they aren't is a complete picture. What they can do is provide a useful indication of changes over time in just the credit report aspect. In theory quotation searches should do a better job but for me and I assume some others the credit score is largely right but the eligibility and affordability stuff is worthless at the MSE place even though it's fine elsewhere. Not worth paying to get the scores, though, particularly when they are available free.
  • redux
    redux Posts: 22,976
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    MSE_Dan_L wrote: »
    Sorry, my mistake - the dial which shows a note of 'So-So' or 'Good' etc is personalised. However all the text below it isn't.

    Hope that makes sense.

    It makes sense, but it doesn't explain why they are apparently reporting me as borrowing much more of the credit available than is actually the case.
  • Anthorn
    Anthorn Posts: 4,362
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    jamesd wrote: »
    Experian are planning to make their credit reports available free next week (use a private browsing window to avoid using up one of your limited number of views per month) so when they do that you could try there and they may be able to provide support in sorting out what the problem is if that doesn't work either.

    It's been available for a while and is called "Creditmatcher". It follows the same track as other free services and provides the score monthly and the ability to match the score to financial products. The paid Experian credit score in contrast is updated in real time.
    https://www.experian.co.uk/?sc=200079&gclid=CIS6orObhc8CFdMV0wodcTALKA
  • takman
    takman Posts: 3,876
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    Anthorn wrote: »
    It's been available for a while and is called "Creditmatcher". It follows the same track as other free services and provides the score monthly and the ability to match the score to financial products. The paid Experian credit score in contrast is updated in real time.
    https://www.experian.co.uk/?sc=200079&gclid=CIS6orObhc8CFdMV0wodcTALKA

    Creditmatcher only allows you to see your pretty useless credit score and not your report. If they do indeed start offering your credit report for free that will be a big bonus and a worthwhile service.
  • Raquela
    Raquela Posts: 359 Forumite
    jamesd wrote: »
    Experian are planning to make their credit reports available free next week (use a private browsing window to avoid using up one of your limited number of views per month) so when they do that you could try there and they may be able to provide support in sorting out what the problem is if that doesn't work either.

    Interesting, thanks for that (I have a sub through work so could read the article with no probs). I did try and get my statutory report but that's not working (the error message suggest the service was down as opposed to any issue with my data. Will try Experian later in the week!
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