Rejection Affecting Credit Score

Agreed. Only the searches are recorded, not the outcome. Also the type of card you hold is not recorded, only the limit, balance, whether you've taken cash, whether you're paying minimums and whether there's a promo deal in force.

Just apply if you want to.

Key points are not to miss any payments, not to exceed your limit and to pay off more than the minimum each month. Put as much turnover through as you can.

There are no scores. That's the whole point.

I’m going to sound like a broken record, but agggrrrr!!, another example of how credit ‘scores’ skew people’s behaviour.

The OP has carefully rebuilt their credit file. I guess the reason for this was to broaden the range of credit options available to them. They’ve done it!:D But now the score has become so important that they’re considering not getting a product they ‘really need’ because there’s a change of losing a few points for a couple of months. The score becomes the end instead of the means.

I’m not having a go at you OP, but of course you should apply.

Dandytf wrote: »

Yes there are scores -what importance the scores mean is debatable.
I listened from another post an Experian radio talk where their rep explained their score (in simple terms )
E.g. Checkmyfile advises soft searches don't impact you're score/file
Whereas Hard searches do impact your score/file.
Another example of negative score/file impact is making lots of credit applications in a short time and I beleive rejections don't help at all

The point is that no one sees these 'scores' other than you. At best they're a crude guide to how a lender might view your file. At worst they're misleading. This place is full of people who can't get a basic credit card despite their 'excellent score' and full of people like me who have mediocre scores who can get pretty much any product they like.

One credit search on your file won't make any real world difference regardless of how it might affect your score. If you're not prepared to apply for things then what's the point in worrying your 'score' anyway?!

An Experian rep is NOT the most objective of people to explain the merits of their score. They are after all in the business of selling scores!

Dandytf wrote: »

Yes there are scores -what importance the scores mean is debatable.
I listened from another post an Experian radio talk where their rep explained their score (in simple terms )
E.g. Checkmyfile advises soft searches don't impact you're score/file
Whereas Hard searches do impact your score/file.
Another example of negative score/file impact is making lots of credit applications in a short time and I beleive rejections don't help at all

It's not really like that. And we all know that the Experian like to talk up the existance of a "score" that you need to nurture and worry about. There is no such thing.

CRAs hold data which they supply to lenders. They will also give it to you, either in response to a subject access request or as part of a service you buy.

First of all, only (hard) searches are logged and seen by lenders. They do not report the outcome of searches. Rejections are NOT logged by the likes of Experian because they don't even know about them.

Secondly, scores. If you pay them, CRAs will calculate a score and give it to you. This is based on the data they hold. They might do the same for lenders - this could be based on the same algorithm or a different one. Lenders have their own data - eg what you put on the form - income, housing status etc. So they would generally score according to their own criteria and based on a different data set.