How many is too many?

The_Boss

When it is said that too many credit applications in a short period of time can affect your credit record, how many is it that can cause damage and how long is a short period of time?

My credit rating is poor. In the past year I have applied for a Lloyds TSB card (december), Barclaycard(December), Alliance and Leicester Account(june), M&S credit card (June), Halifax card (june), NatWest card (november). I have also had mortgage searches done in april, July, august and september (I know about getting quotes as opposed to searches, but these were all necessary).

My concern is that I want to get a car loan or 0% balance transfer card in January or February time and dont want to be turned down, so will wait longer if necessary. So how many constitutes a risk?

$17mma

Every creditor rates differently so will all depend on how many searches they deem as a credit risk or desperate.

Sounds like you have had quite a few searches for the yr totalling 10 not sure if that is good.

CTT_2

1 or 2 searches in a 6 month period is acceptable. More than that is deemed very negative.

The_Boss

CTT wrote:

1 or 2 searches in a 6 month period is acceptable. More than that is deemed very negative.

The Natwest search was done late november, but apart from that all the others were done before September 5th. So should my rating be better by february?

I'd also like to add - in the past year I have cancelled Virgin, Egg, Natwest, Capital One and Barclaycard cards. I am going to cancel the Lloyds Card soon. Will this not help it go back in my favour?

CTT_2

According to Equifax I have had three searches in 6 months and they gave me a rating of 500 which in their eyes is excellent. I have found in the past that everytime a search is made your credit score is reduced by 23 points per search. However your score will recover provided no further searches are made and by February it should be out of intensive care and look alot better. However if I were you I would pay for a credit score from either Equifax or Experien in February. You will then have some idea whether you may be accepted for a 0 percent deal.

Angie8

Yes, check your credit rating early next year, but don't pay for it - see Martin's article 'Your Credit Rating' for how to get the rating for free - http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1101485056,23650

('Sneakily and speedily' bit 3/4 of the way down).

The_Boss

Yeah, I did that a few months ago so cant do it for free again. Oh well. Thanks anyway though.

I paid for the Equifax one, and my rating is now back to 'good'. Is there likely to be much difference between that and the Experian rating? One thing Equifax warned me was that my number of searches was too high.

Angie8

Different companies do credit searches with different credit reference agencies so there may well be a big difference in your rating if for example, all the companies you've applied for credit with use Experian for instance.

Based on my experience of checking my credit reference files, active accounts such as loans and credit cards usually show up on all your credit reference files. I've only seen minor differences in this data.

So it's worth checking both of the main agencies out. The third agency, Callcredit is small and probably not worth bothering with at present.

A 'who uses who' list is here: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1129725802,83707 It's possible to increase your chances of getting credit by choosing a company which uses the agency with the better rating.

The_Boss

Very useful list. My last credit score with Experian was 'poor' back in early september. Having looked at this list, 2 Northern Rock mortgage, Alliance and Leicester bank account, Halifax credit card and mortgage and M&S card searches wont have shown up on the Equifax but will on the Experian. That's probably going to make quite a difference.