New MSE Credit Checker Tool - Please help us test if you have 5 mins

MSE_Martin

Hi folks,

Thanks for all the feedback on this. Please remember that this will be in the context of the credit rating article which explains all the issues in detail. It's also primarily there so you can "play with different answers to see the impact" rather than as a credit check.

Martin

sazziecee

I can't see it properly, it looks all higgledy piggledy and so I can't select an answer for some of the questions

SiuLoong

Tool works fine.. I think the scope and depth of the scoring system will become obvious from the article. This is not a tool for people with a good understanding of credit checks, as there isn't enough detail as mentioned regarding income, available credit, used credit, number of cards/applications, etc.. etc.. and obviously every institution scores people differently. If you are a stoozer or a rate tart you are likely to have a better understanding of the systems used than your average consumer, and hence the tool will be of less value. However, for your average person on the street it helps to give an idea of some of the things that affect your rating, and it is a fine balance between enough detail for accuracy and not enough detail to make things ambiguous.

For example, 'do you pay the full balance or minimum payments only?' isn't always one or the other.. on those cards with 0% deals I pay minimum payment, but I always pay the balance any other cards..

jamesd

dhassen, here's one way to get excellent: 31-45, 3-10, 1-3, 1-2, 0, no, no, yes, no, yes.

Change age to 21-25 or 26-30 and keep the rest the same and it's good instead of excellent. At age 26-30 increasing the time at the same address from 3-10 years to 10-15 years will make the score excellent. At age 21-25 that still leaves the score at good.

donny-gal

Worked fine with me, apart from when I pressed start again, it did not give me a Start box, just went blank.
DG

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

donny-gal wrote: »

Worked fine with me, apart from when I pressed start again, it did not give me a Start box, just went blank.
DG

As above, the check doesn't restart now, although it does come up if you refresh the page.

Maybe it's already been mentioned as I didn't read every post, but wouldn't it make more sense to say "2(3) or more" rather than "more than 2(3)?"

Checker obviously doesn't like me as I only get a "good" when my credit score from Experian last week was excellent (999).

dhassen

jamesd wrote: »

dhassen, here's one way to get excellent: 31-45, 3-10, 1-3, 1-2, 0, no, no, yes, no, yes.

Change age to 21-25 or 26-30 and keep the rest the same and it's good instead of excellent. At age 26-30 increasing the time at the same address from 3-10 years to 10-15 years will make the score excellent. At age 21-25 that still leaves the score at good.

Cheers James..... looks like it'll be a while before I get excellent then!

shelovestobuystuff

Really good,it let me see there was no need to waste my time applying for anything and making my credit rating even worse than it is.
Also see that cancelling the cards and accounts I dont use will have a positive effect on my rating as I will have fewer credit accounts showing up on a credit check.

edindie

To all those people who are naysaying and saying that real credit scores are much more complicated, obviously this is the case; however I know Credit Expert quite well and this is surprisingly similar to how it calculates the Credit Expert score!

(So now there’s no reason for people to pay £5.95!!)

Paul_Herring

edindie wrote: »

To all those people who are naysaying and saying that real credit scores are much more complicated, obviously this is the case; however I know Credit Expert quite well and this is surprisingly similar to how it calculates the Credit Expert score!

That's all very well if the financial institution you're thinking of using is using the same formulae as Experian, but this is not the case.

Most people going to Credit Expert and getting their 'credit score' are under the delusion that whatever number they get back will naturally apply to any and all institutions offering credit. Hence the number of posts on here saying "My credit score is 1001, but Tescaburies Natley's won't give me a credit card!!!!"

(So now there’s no reason for people to pay £5.95!!)]

If you're paying £5.95 to Experian *just* to get a `score of your credit`, then I think paying to get your credit score according to Experian (alone) is the least of your worries

Sidenote:
These numbers/scores are guides to how a random financial institution is likely to view your application, not a guarantee that they must accept your application, and I think this should be pointed out in explicit detail in any article accompanying this calculator.