Credit Score/Rating/Report

pessable

I'm a bit confused about credit rating terminology. I was helping someone get out of debt and they were (ironically) paying about £100 per year to Experian to be able to see their credit report (the list of all their credit accounts and status on late payments, missed payments, and defaults) as well a credit score (I think my friend's score was about 450 out of 999 IIRC).

As a result, although I believe I have an almost impeccable credit history, I was intrigued to find my own credit score. Unfortunately I was duped in to signing up for a credit checking account with Experian for a month beleiving that's what I would get - only to find that I would have to pay extra to get my credit score rather than just my credit report. I refused to pay the extra money as it would have ended up costing me about £15 to check my score, and I'd already spent £7 to check my report (I've used the free trial month previously). I should have followed up on the fact that the link which duped me was misleading but that's another story and life's too short.

So I'd still like to find out my credit score, preferably for very little. Just once every 12-18 months would be fine. I've thought of using a £2 Data Protection request, but I suspect that this again would only get my credit report not credit score. I'm guessing that Experian et al would argue that the score is based on their processing of the data, so they can supply the raw data but don't have to supply the score. Does anyone know if this is the case?

If I use one of the free trial accounts, how often can I revert to a free trial? And will this get me my score as well as a report for free?

Whilst I was googling for a way to do this I came across a BBC transcript...BBC Big Spender ...which includes a couple of lines by Martin which have confused me.

Martin Lewis: It's a credit score, first of all, nobody has a rating, each lender
makes its own decision on whether it wants to lend you money.

Martin Lewis: You can't check your credit score

Is the second comment correct - can one not check one's own credit score? I'm sure I'm not imagining my friend's score.

Thanks,

Pessable.

Rafter

Pessable,

A subject access request for your score will get you nowhere. It is an Experian calculation based on data they hold - not a piece of data in its own right.

Your score is only indicative anyway. Whether you can get credit will depend on a lenders own affordability check and their 'scorecard'. They might apply different weightings than experian.

A lender will generally have much more information about you to. Experian have no idea about your income for example and are basing their score purely on whether you are operating your credit accounts efficiently, how much of your available credit you are using and whether or not your address and identity information are up to date.

Based on your experian 'score' experian itself, or price comparison sites or brokers who use its score can recommend products you are likely to get accepted for. You won't actually know until a full credit search and evaluation is done through a lenders own systems.

R.

Typhoon2000

Dont pay money for your credit score from experian or anyone else. It not wort a penny when it comes to getting credit. All lenders have their own way of calculating your score which is invariably different from Experian. The £2 report should be enough for you to see if lenders will hold you in good stead.

pessable

Typhoon2000 wrote: »

The £2 report should be enough for you to see if lenders will hold you in good stead.

I guess I'm just a simple sort who likes the idea of a magic number that sums it all up!