Credit Rating: How it works and How to improve it discussion area

beanyy

xgingerx wrote: »

Hi, I had the same problem where i was living at my address longer than actually on the electoral role, it does affect your score not been on the electoral role and when i applied for credit they asked for proof that id been at that address as long as i said i had, so had to send some utility bills and bank statements over the lasy few years that i wasnt on elec role. Lenders like to see 3 years normally

What were you applying for that they wanted to see proof? If you don't mind me asking!

aliciamoss

I wanted to open a new bank account and applied on line. Got the roll number and everything. Then I got turned down by letter - after I had given the details of how to show up with paper ID at a branch. The rejection letter said my credit score wasn't high enough.

I clock up "excellent" on the credit score checker. Felt better when I read Martin's point about how banks want to make money and my way doesn't make them any. Can they cancel my cards because I pay on time?

So I thought I'd check my rating rather than get into the rejection spiral. Try Experian. Get as far as my address in the sign up process and find two options, one correct (apart from the "old" county name) and one adding my house name onto the front of another address half a mile away, but in the same post code. The form won't let me choose my address, so I ring up as instructed. Bear in mind - it offered me my address.

Experian tell me that because it is a rural address, the system won't work because there isn't a street name. I must use the electoral roll address, which they proceed to read out to me. Well I fall off my chair. My house name is there, and the hamlet - with another (completely irrelevant) county name added to it to make a new and bogus word, and then the village name, and then the "old" county name. That, they assure me, is what is on the electoral roll.

So I ring my county council and check. Nope. I'm right all along. So I ring Experian, again, and tell them, and they blithely assure me that anyone performing a credit check on me won't have this problem because they go by name and postcode. What?!? They didn't even say they'd check or correct their files. They'll send my report within seven days, on paper, as a courtesy. Right.

Remember I mentioned two address options? One correct and the one my house name tacked in the front of another one? Well that other one is or was connected with a chap who was one of those whose businesses kept going bankrupt and then starting under new names in the same place and line of work. Oh yes. Isn't there a possibility a bank might get the wrong information, if they get options for the postcode? Going by Experian's accuracy so far - my electoral roll address - ha! - and their inflexible inadequate computer system, what else are they getting wrong?

Am I mad to smell fish and wonder why I've been turned down by the bank?

Oh, and because I couldn't get past the address page, I have to start the process again if I want to complete registration.

Now to see if the other credit checkers have the same problem.

.:mad: doesn't get close.

Alicia

beanyy

Crikey thats rediculous, its not like your shopping online and Asda doesn't deliver to you?! Your address is your address!

xgingerx

Hi, it was a virgin credit card, by the way Virgin normally dont just through out applications, if the computer cant decide a credit risk person normally has a look over it first

beanyy

Do you know what there lending criteria is like? Wondering whether to apply!

xgingerx

Well, they at at each application by a "credit specialist" as they call them, when i did I have little credit history and 1 default which was satisfed and got a limit of 5k

from what i know now they also take poor credit and even have a card where u ahve to put a deposit on, got to the sub prime thread and they will know more there

beanyy

Thanks for your help

andyblack19

I have a situation and just wanted some advice on whether i can do anything about changing my credit report or not...

I checked my credit report yesterday to find that I had a default from an old 02 mobile contract. What happened was, I had a 12month contract with 02 and after around 15months i decided to cancel. I phoned 02 and a guy told me that if i were to change my contract to pay as you go, instead of just outright canceling it, i would not have to wait the 30 days notice period. I agreed and he sent me the new PAYG simcard. He said it would be cancelled automatically and i would be sent my final bill, when i registered the new sim. I received the new sim card next day and registered it as required.
I was never sent my final bill by 02 and so forgot about it, until last week (7 months later) when I got a bill from a debt recovery agency for the amount of the final bill! I rang up the debt place immediatly and paid them.

02 never tried to contact me, despite having my home phone number, or send me any letters such as a payment reminder, or the actual final bill!

The problem is, now I have a default on my credit report from 02!

What can I do? Any help appriciated! Thanks, Andy B x

BASFORDLAD

write to 02 demanding it is removed
otherwise u will report them to the information commissoner,

ceonuse

hello everyone, i've been taking advantage of the advice MSE provides for a while and succesfully claimed money from banks, reduced utilities cost, travel cost etc. Now i'm doing it on behalf of family members who aren't as tenacious as me :-).

About a year back i was trying to get my mum to transfer her her credit card balance from M&S store card to an interest free one, as she pays a hell of a lot of interest on it (approx £170 a month). I assumed that my mother was the perfect candidate, she always pays her minimum repayment on time, always fulfills her contracts with utilities companies, appropriate age, stable job, stable living circumstances etc. But she still got rejected.

i then came across this credit rating article a few weeks ago and decided to try it out. Low and behold 02 claimed my mother had defaulted on her payments to them almost two years ago and that the contract was not fulfilled by my mother! This was completely wrong! to cut a long story short, i rang up both o2 and Phones4U and found out that the black mark on my mother's credit rating was a result of negligence from both companies.

the issue is being resolved after hours of phone calls and complaining. But i would like to ask if anyone knows whether i can claim any compensation in the small claims court against the above companies for the huge economic trouble they have caused us. My father is disabled and i'm a student. my mother is the only breadwinner in the house and its unjust that they can get away with really messing with people's lives. I dread to think about the amount of people who must suffer from this type of invisible black mark on their economic status.

sorry for the long rant, but if anyone could point me in the right direction i would appreciate it.