Credit Score of 865 - How bad is that ?.

rangie

Hi all

Recently did an experian credit check and got a score of 865. I have a few defaults and a CCJ on the file which are all satisfied and have been for nearly 3 years.

My question is, how adverse is my score of 865 classed in the finance world ?.

My mortgage doesnt end its fixed rate until November but id like to make my decisions in advance. At present i pay a huge 7.79% and it will drop to 2.7% above the base rate in Nov so it makes sense to stay but im worried that the rates go right up and i end up paying high APR again.

I also have a secured loan which i pay about 20% on and cant help thinking i pay far too much, especially if my credit profile isnt as bad as i thought.

And advice welcome.

carkeyz

Wow I dont know too much but mine was 331 last time I checked! I think you will be better of than me!

MrsTinks

a - scores are a myth really they do NOT directly impact lenders decisions on who to lend money to and at what rates.

b - 3 years of "clean" credit is going to stand you in good stead - not as good as when it drops off ofcourse but at least they are satisfied which helps tremendously

c - try not to worry too much - a lot of things can happen between now and when your fixed rate comes to an end. Yes I'd agree that paying 20% apr on a secured loan is WAY high! :eek: I'd look around and see if you can't get a better rate than that now - that way any searches will have dropped off by the time mortgage renewal time comes round

IWantToBeFree_2

Credit scores aren't worth the paper they are writen on, they are simply a marketing tool for the companies that 'sell' them.

rangie

Thanks for the very helpful comments, i dont know how succesful id be in getting a new secured loan because the 2 products together = 95% of my house value.

Im earning a lot more than i did before and if the rate drops at the end of my fixed rate it will drop over £300 per month of the monthly payment. I am planning on staying put for a couple more years which will pay more off the mortgage, pay off my loan and get me closer to the drop off point for the CCJ etc etc.

Both my girlfirend and i pay a subscription to experian, it sounds like its a waste of money

MrsTinks

Well it is and it isn't... I am Mrs Paranoid of Oxon lol so to me it's money I am willing to spend because I am a control freak and I'd flip if I couldn't see exactly what is going on - I mean what if someone was applying for credit in my name??? :eek:
Ok I'm extreem but to me it's money well spent - just don't pay for the "score" thing which you pay seperately for anyway

TheAmazingMeatMan

[Apologies if this posts twice; my computer just crashed!]
Hi there!

(The short answer to this is in the last paragraph; I have just read this whole post back and I have rambled on terribly. Sorry about that.)

Well, I used to work for NatWest credit cards, and (although we were told not to tell customers this EVER, under pain of serious misconduct charges and very likely dismissal), the rough guide they worked by was that a score of about 750 was good. So a score of 865 back in the early 2000s (when I worked there) would have got you a definite credit limit increase (and a sizeable one at that) - get this - EVEN IF YOU DIDN'T ASK FOR IT!

This is especially remarkable, as, due to NatWest getting stung really badly by CC fraud a few years previously, they were particularly stingy. All of our customers said so, and this was easily the thing that customers got most abusive about. The kicker was that the Increase Limit department only had 2 people working in it at any one time, and we were instructed very clearly not to put calls through to those particular people. And they refused to hold on to see if there were any further queries, such as the customer saying that they had a great payment history with not one missed payment, any interest, or any charges. It's hard to argue with that. But we had to call Increased Limits back and go through all the details again.

And when a customer (unsurprisingly) demanded to speak to a manager about the situation, the managers used to decline to take the calls, saying that, because they didn't work in Increased Limits, they wouldn't be able to tell the customers any more than us call takers could. So the line was basically 'if you're not happy with this decision, go to your [overworked and understaffed] branch, with all your financial records, and get a personal banker to call in on your behalf and dispute it for you. Oh, you want to know what your credit rating actually IS? I'm sorry, it's illegal for me to actually tell you.'

I joined not long after the R.B.S. buy-out, and when I left, I e-mailed B.B.C. Watchdog to tell them of this and all the other awful stuff that went on there, but they weren't interested, as they weren't currently investigating a story on R.B.S. or NatWest. This despite telling them that I had a load of evidence from our training materials, and my payslips / workroll number as evidence that I had worked there, and that I would be willing to be interviewed for the programme (anonymously, of course). But they still said no. It was only months and months later, when I was just about to move house, that I got an e-mail from them asking them to speak to them. I explained that I would do so as soon as I'd moved, but my life has been a hectic mess since, and I've been long-term sick for years now. But I will do it one day, it's just that I'm too ill at the moment. And, really, at this time of economic crisis, do we really need another bank potentially losing a large percentage of their value right now? I only had the treatment of the customers in mind when I wanted to bring this to light, and I think that the very same sentiment will keep me quiet until this whole crisis is well and truly over. And by then, sadly, I fear the story will be too old for anyone to really care, if it isn't already.

But, anyway, sorry to ramble on and on and on like that! The short answer is that, 6 or 7 years ago, a stingy bank's (their overdrafts, loans, etc. were also being criticised at the time) credit card arm would have bitten your hand off to give you more credit with a score as good as 865. How this would have affected mortgages, etc., I'm afraid I'm not knowledgeable enough to say. And I certainly don't know what they would lend now. But I think other posters in this thread are right; even with the very best credit score, people will struggle to get credit that they should be able to afford, whether with NatWest or anywhere else.

NatWest. There is another way. Find a decent bank instead, if you can.

TheAmazingMeatMan

Re my last post: Ah, pants! Sorry about the wierd formatting; I had to copy and paste it back in.

UPDATE: I've just gone in and edited out the extra formatting, so it should be far easier to read now.

charliesnanna

Can anyone help...I have worked very hard over the last couple of decades to free myself of debt, which I had in the eighties. I swore I would never get into debt again and I haven't. I have paid off my mortgage and have no debt whatsoever. A couple of years ago I had a Barclaycard which I paid off , didn't use much, so they cancelled it.
I would now like a credit card but Barclaycard won't give me one because of my credit rating. I looked at my report, thinking there may be a mistake and there is almost nothing on it, so why won't they give me credit? I owe nothing to nobody!!

TheAmazingMeatMan

charliesnanna wrote: »

Can anyone help...I have worked very hard over the last couple of decades to free myself of debt, which I had in the eighties. I swore I would never get into debt again and I haven't. I have paid off my mortgage and have no debt whatsoever. A couple of years ago I had a Barclaycard which I paid off , didn't use much, so they cancelled it.
I would now like a credit card but Barclaycard won't give me one because of my credit rating. I looked at my report, thinking there may be a mistake and there is almost nothing on it, so why won't they give me credit? I owe nothing to nobody!!

Hi, there

I don't know if Barclaycard work the same way, but I can tell you how it would've worked from my experience of working with NatWest, so I hope I can shed some light on the situation for you. Generally, most credit card companies tend to work in the same way, although there are some differences.

Firstly, let me congratulate you on clearing your debts. My debts only (only! I still have to laugh at myself for using that word! Ha-ha) amount to about £4K, but trying to pay them off has been a nightmare. You're one of those customers that banks and credit card companies don't really like - you're TOO sensible with your money. You got into debt, you paid it off, and haven't owed a penny to anybody since. The irony is that banks make next to nothing from good customers.

But, at the other end of the scale to someone like yourself, there are those who max out their credit straight away, and make no payments at all, having to be chased for ever more. Banks only want to lend to the people who use their cards on a regular basis and don't pay the full balance off every month, so that they can charge interest and possibly late payment fees.

Instead of looking at your record and praising you for successfully living without credit of any kind, they see that you have no credit history for the last two years, and as a result your credit rating (no matter how good or bad it was before) actually goes DOWN (or at least that's what our trainers at NatWest told us happens). They wonder why you need credit now, and you get penalised for doing things the sensible way. I wish I could have followed your example, believe me!

And the fact that you were a customer previously means absolutely nothing to Barclays. I was a loyal bank customer for something like 12 years, and when I became long-term sick they didn't want 'excuses'. My benefits claim took 3 months to be processed, during which time I was living on Crisis Loans. I told Barclays this when they were chasing payment on my overdraft, and the guy I spoke to (who is apparently the same grade as a branch manager) asked me if I could borrow the money to pay them off! Not only did I explain that if I could borrow the money, then I wouldn't need a Crisis Loan in the first place, but it is ILLEGAL in this situation for banks to encourage more borrowing, no matter what form it takes. That's how much Barclays care about their customers.

I hope this sheds some light on the situation for you, and I truly wish you the best for the future. Good luck!

Bismarck

some interesting stuff there, thanks! I'd always thought that the score itself was meaningless...have figured out over the years that the banks really want the middle customers who borrow money, have to pay some interest and will pay it back...when you think of it that way it makes sense really...the crux of the issue then lies in the "some interest" part of the deal....