Credit score was 884 2 months ago but is now 494 - can't get a mortgage due to this

Littlebutterfly_2

Best thing is to ring Experian! They gave me great help last year and I took their advice and turned my mediocre 664 into 994:j

ILW

The Experian number means nothing, it is just a way of taking £6.00 off you.

Thrugelmir

ILW wrote: »

The Experian number means nothing, it is just a way of taking £6.00 off you.

Agreed. Lenders will have their own criteria for assessing each applicant.

dunstonh

I know I have been out of it for a while but it used to be a case of more than 2 credit scores in a 6 month period would start to see your score damaged.

Experian 16/11/2010
Nationwide 12/11/2010
Nationwide 12/11/2010
Barclays 07/10/2010
Experian 29/09/2010
William Hill 17/09/2010
William Hill 17/09/2010
MBNA 09/09/2010
Egg 09/09/2010
/* CUT OFF POINT BETWEEN REPORTS */
Google Payments 03/08/2010
Vodafone 09/07/2010
HSBC 30/06/2010
FDE 28/04/2010
FDR 28/04/2010
MBNA 15/02/2010

Thats a serious load of checks in such a short period. That has to be damaging your score. I would say most people only get 1, maybe 2 a year (not including ID searches). It points to a significant increase in credit agreements.

Gambling linked ones can't help. Although they may not be doing that much damage. That said, lenders typically have a poor view of gamblers. Especially those on a line of credit.

AndersLimpar_2

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Agreed. Lenders will have their own criteria for assessing each applicant.

It does give you a general idea though. Better than going in to these things completley blind.

ILW

AndersLimpar wrote: »

It does give you a general idea though. Better than going in to these things completley blind.

It gives very little idea, for a start it carries no information about income.

Funkygibbon

I think the credit scores are completely useless! I had a score of 884 but I have 3 defaults on my file!

rasterize_2

An update: My broker managed to find a building society which uses Equifax and not Experian. Since I'm considered 'good' on Equifax I managed to get a mortgage agreed for the price I wanted.

Shows how stupid this system is really.

Oh and Experian replied to my email:

Thank you for your email, which we received on 18 November 2010.

I HAVE REVIEWED YOUR REPORT AND CAN TELL YOU THAT:

I am sorry you have had a recent application for credit declined.

Whilst it is not possible to categorically state why your score has dropped the following changes will have affected your score:

*You have an extra credit account with a balance very close to the credit limit.
*Four recent searches have been carried out by lenders.
*The credit card balance on another account has increased.

So that's their verdict as to why I have gone from above average to high risk in 2 months. So now I'm not using my cards so much (certainly not near to the limits) and over the next 1-3 months I should have this resolved. Really annoying since the only reason I am using cards in the first place was to increase my credit rating.

dunstonh

So that's their verdict as to why I have gone from above average to high risk in 2 months.

So quite logical and correct then as those things clearly indicate a potential increase in risk.

kev.s

for every credit check you have 25 points is deducted from your score