Equifax credit scoring

coltrane23

At the end of January I was refused an interest free loan by a very well known DIY store. In all my life I have never been refused credit so I was very surprised by this. I immediately decided to check my credit score. First up Experian who scored me as excellent. Then I looked at Equifax who appeared to have two items of concern:
1. An outstanding (sic) Vodaphone bill. Vodaphone confirmed that this was incorrect and I advised Equifax of this. This has now been cleared from their records
2. I moved into a new property in August of last year and proceeded to arrange utilities, Virgin cable & phone and I coincidently changed mobile phone provider all in a very short space of time. Because I had lived in my new home for less than 3 years credit searches were done both on my new and old addresses. Now Exquifax have downgraded my score because I have had too many searches in a short space of time and I have been refused a loan. I know credit searches impact badly on credit scoring but I thought some level of intelligence would be used to qualify the data these companies gathered. Also why does Experian give me an excellent rating when Equifax the complete opposite?
Is there anything I can do to counter this?

dannya1978

If it's any consolation I had the same issue a few years when applying for a mortgage, the reason given was to prevent fraud and to stop me potentially gaining a millions in credit in one hit, they told me to wait a month and it would be clear again

Mags_cat

The "scores" that any of these people sell to you are pointless. They don't lend you money.

The people who will lend you money - your bank, or other reputable lender - will not have access to your "credit score". They will make their own estimation of your lending risk given their knowledge of you and your finances.

Checking your credit files *is* important - it helps to make sure your identity isn't being cloned. Just don't buy into their scores - they mean nothing.