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

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  • Zack1
    Zack1 Posts: 1,433 Forumite
    Pre-Registered to give it a shot when it comes out, shame it's only Call Credit (as it's obviously linked into them), but will be interesting to see what they have on me.

    Suppose it's a more advanced version of the Barclaycard Pre-App check, just hope it does a better job!
  • flapmio
    flapmio Posts: 17 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts Combo Breaker
    Zack1 wrote: »
    :)

    (10 characters.......)

    Thanks Zack1, I was hoping it would mean my details are safer now.:)
  • PatW9
    PatW9 Posts: 1 Newbie
    Hi,
    Thank you Martin, I've been following your site and taking your advice for years. When I started my credit score was lower than low.
    Over the last five years, following your advice, my credit score went from being in the bottom 10% in the country to, until 2 months ago, to being in the TOP 5% in the country. You and your team are great.
    I was going through the motions of being a good Card Tart, applying for new balance transfers and cancelling cards. I applied for a Halifax Platium card, and a Virgin Card. Being in the Top 5% in the country has it's benefits. Virgin Card fine. Halifax did 4 Credit Checks in one day. Then a few days later did another and then calked me and said my credit rating was not good enough.
    I have an ongoing membership with Experian and they alerted me. Because the Halifax did all those Checks in one day, a week or so after Virgin had done theirs, it plummeted my Credit Score down to poor in a matter of days. Then they did that other check lowering it more. The Cards I cancelled show up as settled but the £15,000 credit it freed up has not been added, lower score, but the Virgin card credit limit has been taken off, lowering score again.
    1. What can I do about all the Halifax checks that ruined my score then doing another, I think knowing what they had done, and refusing me?

    2. Why has the cancelled credit cards credit not been added to my score?

    Please can you help as I am back down to where I was 5 years ago?
  • Zack1
    Zack1 Posts: 1,433 Forumite
    The effect of searches is temporary, in 6-12 months you'll go back up again if other information (income, job, address etc) hasn't changed. Credit scores are a joke anyway... there is no way, if you've run your accounts correctly, you've gone back to where you were 5 years ago because of some searches.

    Usually, more than 1 search by the same company, on the same day, only counts as one. You can dispute the searches... they might get deleted. It may add a notice of correction to your file while they are investigating though (meaning all applications have to be manually reviewed). It's worth a try.

    If you do nothing, and apply for nothing else then your file will recover in ~6 months as the effect of the searches wears off (a lot of companies are said to only care about last 6 months regarding searches). After 12 months they are deleted anyway, so then you'll be fine for sure.

    2 - How long were the cards open for? Having a lot of short term accounts isn't great for your score - companies score more and more on profitability rather than affordability these days (although they'll never admit it). Active accounts are always preferred to closed ones anyway, but closing accounts after 12 months etc means they strongly suspect you are taking advantage of intro deals, and therefore won't be profitable - so do they want to take you on? Probably not.
  • incesticde
    incesticde Posts: 466 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    Looking at my Experian Credit Report and noticed that two searches are showing up for my mum and her new phone contract (showing in associate searches). The blurb at the top of associate searches says that lenders can't see this information but.....

    In the experian summary box thing it shows four searches in the last three months (2 for me and 2 for my mum).

    Does an associate search count as a search of my credit report then?
    "I don't want to sound cold and un-caring, but I am those things so that's the way it comes out" - Bill Hicks
  • izools
    izools Posts: 7,513 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    incesticde wrote: »
    Looking at my Experian Credit Report and noticed that two searches are showing up for my mum and her new phone contract (showing in associate searches). The blurb at the top of associate searches says that lenders can't see this information but.....

    In the experian summary box thing it shows four searches in the last three months (2 for me and 2 for my mum).

    Does an associate search count as a search of my credit report then?

    An associate search is visible by you, for information purposes only. In Credit Expert, the number of searches for the last three months doesn't just count those that lenders see, but also searches that only you can see.

    So your credit worthiness won't be affected by her applying for credit :o

    Do you actually share any joint financial products with your mother? Of not, you may wish to go through the process of a notice of disassociation so that you are no longer credit scored as a pair when either of you applies for something :o
    Cashback Earned ¦ Nectar Points £68 ¦ Natoinwide Select £62 ¦ Aqua Reward £100 ¦ Amex Platinum £48
  • Hoopie1
    Hoopie1 Posts: 1,254 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    This is a cross-post from the mortgage forum and relates jointly to the credit rating agencies and my prospective lender. I would welcome any input.
    I applied yesterday for a mortgage from HSBC to remortgage my existing property. They have an attractive deal on at the moment and it would save me a fair amount of money. Having completed the form (with a lot of detail) and then gone through my application with an adviser on the phone, my application was declined due to my credit profile (they initially told me they didn't know why, I informed them that they were bound by FSA regulations to specify why and they relented and told me).

    I found this rather odd, given that I have never had a credit problem in my life. I meet all the credit hurdles (the amount I am looking to borrow is less than 1x my gross annual basic salary and the LTV on my property is no higher than 35%, the hurdle rate for the product is 60%)

    I went to the three credit agencies (Experian, Equifax and CallCredit) - I am awaiting a response from Experian and CallCredit after they verify my ID, but I did manage to obtain my Equifax report. I find it absurd that I should have to pay these companies to verify my own information, but that's another matter, I guess.

    Anyway, my Experian report shows everything to be either "Excellent" (in most categories) or "Good" (in two categories). It shows no amounts overdue or any CCJs or similar against me.

    However, there is a record of a CIFAS warning ("victim of impersonation") on my record. At the back end of last year I received a letter from Littlewoods about a £900 store credit card limit. I have never shopped there or applied for this. They cancelled the card (which had not been used) and mentioned something about putting me on a fraud database, which is (I guess) CIFAS.

    My credit score is 438 (out of 600 on the Equifax scale, so they tell me). Equifax also tell me that my score is for my eyes only and that HSBC only have access to my credit report (I'm dubious about this, but I'll take their word for it for now, I guess).

    I assume that when I get my reports from the other two agencies, they are going to show roughly the same thing. HSBC said that if I think there is an error on my report, then I need to go with my report into a branch and deal with it there (I can't imagine how painful doing this is going to be).

    I have two issues here:
    1) The CIFAS note on my file is not an error - it is factually correct to say that I was the victim of impersonation, so I can't really ask for it to be removed from my report. However, the fact that it evidently counts against my ability to obtain credit (when my record is otherwise unblemished) is both absurd and completely unfair.
    2) How on earth do I manage to talk HSBC around when I can only assume that I am going to get a "computer says no" series of responses from them when I have all my information and visit them at a branch?

    Any suggestions or input would be gratefully received.
  • Matari
    Matari Posts: 36 Forumite
    Hi all - I saw this new service flagged on mse (company called callcredit behind this) and, after receiving an email to say people could now sign up last night, duly signed up. After I put my credit card details in I was locked out of the site and despite a phone call to an answerphone and an email I still haven't had any reply. Anyone else had any experiences? I don't feel happy about this at all.
  • Tixy
    Tixy Posts: 31,455 Forumite
    Matari - there is a thread about this trial service here which might be worth a look at, or be worth posting on there - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3299620
    A smile enriches those who receive without making poorer those who give
    or "It costs nowt to be nice"
  • tasty_snacks
    tasty_snacks Posts: 229 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    I've recently been issued with a 'distress warrant' for missing a speeding fine installment. I'm going to pay if off in full within the next few days.

    However, I can't find any information anywhere as to whether such 'distress warrants' appear on credit files. Reason for asking is that the DW was issued incorrectly (the issuing centre have admitted this) and if it will appear on the credit file I'll take further steps to have it removed, but if not will let sleeping dogs lie.

    Obviously CCJs go on a credit report, but does anyone know about DWs???
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