Credit Report advice

Alejandro

I have just downloaded my wife’s credit file with CreditExpert as we are thinking of buying a house (as first-time buyers) in the next six months or so.


Most of the report looks to be fine. We have no late/missed payments, only one credit card (paid in full each month) and relatively low credit limit, no CCJs etc.



There were a few things on the report that I wasn’t sure about, so hoping for some advice:


1. Her credit score was 813, with the only red mark being that for some reason, it shows us as not on the electoral roll at our current address, even though we are definitely on the roll (we receive council tax bills and have voted while at our current address and we specifically phoned the council when we moved in to make sure we were put on the roll). The specific entry on the report list the local authority and our road (but not house number) and says “No Names listed on Voters Roll”. Is this just something we need to take up with the council? Could it be something to do with the formatting of the address (we live in a flat in a coverted house (e.g. Flat A, 3 Station Road), so there is scope to format that in different ways)?


2. She has three “aliases”, 13 “financial associations” and 17 “linked addresses”. These all seem like quite a lot, and the majority seem to relate to the fact that different banks etc use different formats for addresses. So sometimes our addresses might be given as Flat A, 3 Station Road, or 3A Station Road, or A, 3, Station Road, or whatever. The financial associations are all me in one form or another (but sometimes the shortened version of my first name, sometimes with middle name, middle initial etc etc). The aliases are all my wife’’s maiden name, but again sometimes with middle name etc (and once spelled incorrectly). Do these things matter? If so, is there anything we can do about it now to ‘tidy up’ the credit report?

Thanks in advance…

kingstreet

Ignore the credit score number. Experian do this despite the fact lenders form their own score from their own data capture. It won't determine whether you get a mortgage.

The electoral roll data is very important. Get the postal credit files from Equifax and Call Credit to see if you are on the Electoral Roll on there. Based on what you get back, it may be worth contacting the Council. Is it anything to do with the addressing problems you mention in your final paragraph?

Associations and aliases shouldn't matter when applying for a mortgage if neither of you haven't had credit problems.

Alejandro

Kingstreet, thanks very much for your response.

I do actually have the full credit file from Credit Expert as well as the credit score, but are you saying that the postal file will be different again?

As you suggest, I think the electoral roll issue might be something to do with the formatting of the address, but I’m not really sure how to fix that in such a way as to make Credit Expert recognise it – do you think it’s a case of making sure the electoral roll address matches my bank account? Or is it just a case of making sure that when I make a mortgage application, the address I give matches the electoral roll precisely?

kingstreet

Use Credit Expert, which gives you access to your Experian file, then order paper copies from the others to make sure you have the full picture.

You can do the others online using the £2 statutory file charge. They will be posted to you and should arrive within a week.

Make sure the credit file addresses, credit account addresses and electoral roll addresses all match to ensure this doesn't affect you when you apply.

Svenena

Check with your council that you're definitely on the electoral roll - you need to register every year, so just because you've voted there in the past doesn't mean you're on it now, and being registered for council tax is dealt with separately - they don't crosscheck the two.

If you are definitely on there, get confirmation of which form of address is being used, and then contact Experian to let them know. As kingstreet says, you should also get statutory copies of your reports from the other two CRAs, as the information they each hold will not be identical, and check the information on them is also correct.