Moneysavingexpert.com/ Your Credit Rating discussion area

stingyscot · 24 August 2005 at 10:02AM

My daughter is a student, funded by her father. She does not have an earned income, she is just given money as needed. She has a student account with Halifax with an overdraft facility, but she doesn't get overdrawn (except once briefly by mistake!). She is a co-holder on my Capital One credit card, which I pay of course. But how can she get a credit card in her own name when she has no credit rating? My son got one as a package with his student account, several years ago, but Halifax didn't offer this.
Any ideas?

richiethekid · 24 August 2005 at 11:27AM

Back in June I had a copy of my credit file from Equifax, showing me on the electoral register at my current address. Last week I ordered a copy of my Experian file, but they wrote to me to ask for proof of address. Thinking this was a bit strange, I tried to get a free online report from Equifax, but the site said they couldn't verify my identity. I contacted the local council to make sure I'm still on the electoral register, and they say that I am, and credit reference agencies may not have the most up to date register. Seems very strange to me, and hopefully Experian should be able to shed some light on the matter. Anyone else had a similar experience?

madsheepmike · 27 August 2005 at 9:14AM

Hello,

A long(ish) story but I'll try to keep it short. In April 2004 my wife and I sold our house and disappeared on a 9 month round-the-world trip. Great fun. On returning, just before Christmas, I discovered a whole pile of letters from debt collectors regarding my FirstDirect credit card. I immediately paid off the debt as I did owe the money.

I signed up to the FD card earlier that year to transfer some balance away from another card. I had assumed that a direct debit had been setup as had been the case with the other two cards I had. I sent a letter to FD before we went away telling them that we were going to be away and we even gave them a rough itinerary. The letter also mentioned that my mother-in-law had power of attorney to act on my behalf.

Not long after we went away, our house sale went through. Lots of cash in the bank. I probably should have cleared the FD card but I had forgotten to bring the details with me. So I decided that I would just swallow the cost of 4 months' interest instead.

FD did try to contact me at one point and I called them from Belize. They had refused to tell my mother-in-law what they wanted and because I didn't have the account details with me, they refused to talk to me. They instructed me to send them a letter when I explained the situation to them (they should have known I was away). I did this and instructed them to talk to my mother-in-law. This they never did. They did default my credit card account though and called in some debt collectors.

I've had a look at my credit report and made sure that all of my address details are up to date, the only thing I can see that worries me is this default, even though it says satisfied next to it. I want to get a mortgage but this one blip in my history could upset the apple-cart. It's been 8 months since I cleared the debt and over a year since I was defaulted. What effect is this likely o have on a mortgage application and what can I do to improve my situation?

Many thanks.

Michael

barron_2 · 27 August 2005 at 5:57PM

Hi MIchael,
The default will stay on for 6 years satisfied or not,Ive been having problems with lloyds tsb,(see my ramblings in DEBT FREE WANABEE)
Just to summarise,I was offered everything by the bank only 18 months ago,now i am more secure financially and my payment history is 5 star,my rating was 3/4,now it is 8/9(the lowest).
Nothing in my life has changed except the above,1 ccj (£174),has been on my records even before i oppened the account with them.
As you might read yesterday (fri) they offered me a loan at!(19.9%).B******s.
Anyway back to you,I got all my files from checkmyfile.com as martin suggested,there is a number you can ring once you receive them ,the guy is really helpfull.He also suggests means of how you get out of the mire!!.
Hope it may be some help,GOOD LUCK.Barron.

barron_2 · 27 August 2005 at 6:43PM

Great article done everything as advised,
Can any one tell me if it is safe to use Checkmyfile's one form for applying for credit cards ,loans,etc.
You supply all your details to them, and they apply on your behalf for the best deals.(its up to you if you take the offers up or not).
Ive read all the small print,it dosn't mention data protection etc.
Maybe i m being over cautious,its a brilliant idea.
CAN ANYONE ADVISE OR USED THIS SYSTEM???>thanks.

madsheepmike · 29 August 2005 at 5:59PM

barron wrote:

Ive been having problems with lloyds tsb

:-) They've been a pain in my rear before too. Getting my own back now. Transferred some CC balance to one of their cards that they were stupid enough to offer me. I was going to pay it all off this month but instead I'm sticking it in a high interest account for 5 months then I'll pay off the balance without paying them a penny of interest.

barron wrote:

i am more secure financially and my payment history is 5 star,my rating was 3/4,now it is 8/9(the lowest)

that's good. i look forward to fixing my silly mistake. I'll get on to checkmyfile this evening.

many thanks for your help. I appreciate it.

michael

Niteflyer · 29 August 2005 at 11:36PM

Hello guys and gals

before I start, I just wann asay that this is ONE HELPFULL FORUM

thanks.

Ok, I have a question

About 4 years ago, I had pretty good credit, I had 3 credit cards and a loan for £5000. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I lost my job and went into a DEEP state of depression and I'm not proud of it but the credit card and loan payments were the least of my worries and they never got paid.

Now, I have lived in my current address for 18 months, I have a current account with a SWITCH card, 2 O2 monthly mobiles, and an insurance credit agreement to my name but I still can't get credit cards! even CAPITAL ONE reject me, it's probably because I'm not on the electoral role (never have been) the reason I'm not is because I'm worried that the previous debts will catch up with me (it's not that I don't want to pay them, it's just that I so badly want to build my credit file).

I did a check with EQUIFAX using my mums address as previous and ommitting the address I used for the previous credit and it came back with a credit score of 399 which they say is a fair score but advised me to go on electoral role.

Can these previous companies trace me if I do go on the electoral role?

Please understand that I am not proud of what happened, it happened through illness and I just want to put my past behind me and move on and rebuild my life and credit file.

Is there anything I can do?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Matt

pixel · 4 September 2005 at 3:28AM

When people talk about the ill-effects of having lots of searches on your credit record in a short period of time - how many constitutes "lots of searches" and a "short space of time" is how long, roughly?

fubar_2 · 8 September 2005 at 12:17AM

The problem i have discovered with checkmyfile.com is that Experian only provide very basic information on your file via checkmyfile.com, my experian file seen via checkmyfile.com has a credit score of 486 yet my score on the file provided via experian to me has a score of 884 so if the scores are provided from the agencies why should one report quote 486 yet the same file supplied directly has a score of 884, my Equifax has a score of 854 and my callcredit has a score of 736, I have one Settled CCJ from over 5 years ago (gets wiped off Jan 06) and a history that I am quite proud of after getting into strife 6 years ago (unemployed).

I think the scoring that is provided is basically BS, its just another excuse for finance companies to stop thinking for themselves and drive down the middle of the road oblivious to whats going on around them

sean.oconnor@fgould.com · 16 September 2005 at 9:21AM

Hi,
In the process of trying to obtain finance for £8,000. Folllowed your excellant tips for the achiveing this through Texicos life time balance 3.9%. I have applied fior this and a number of lifetime balances and loans at reduced rates but they wont touch me. I applied to checkmyfile for my records and I had a bank close my student account with £2000 overdraft in 2001. The debt was given to a debt agency and I paid it off within 18months.

My question is how long isd this going to be on my records before its erased if ever. I'm not in a bad financial situation and can definitely afford a loan but i'm not going to pay more than 6.4%

Also i have a mortgage at 4.74%, could i just increase my mortgage??

Moneysavingexpert.com/ Your Credit Rating discussion area

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free