Credit Rating questions?

connormill

Not sure if this is in the right place, but I'll give it a go.

Got a few questions about my credit rating, I have recently got my credit rated by equifax and creditconfidential.com but both had totally different results.

Equifax gave me a very poor 212
however,
creditconfidental.com gave me a slightly better 568

Who should I trust?

The reason I ask is that I dont have a lot of credit, I have a contract phone with 3, a gold account (with a overdraft) with lloyds and recently took out a cash plus card, for their credit builder service.
I was hoping to apply for a small loan with Lloyds, just £2k to help with a car purchase but got rejected using their online banking.

Anyone got any advice, I am trying to increase my credit rating, but with 2 providers giving me totally different results I am a tad confused

Tixy

Who should you trust? - neither really, or certainly not one in isolation.

There are 3 credit reference agencies in the UK and they all will hold slightly different info on you - this is because many banks only report to 1 or 2 of the agencies with your credit account conduct and credit searches etc, so to get a full picture you really need to see copies of your credit reports for all 3 agencies. Thats your credit report not a credit score by the way - the scores are not worth purchasing and the reports can be got for £2 from each agency.

creditconfidential is callcredit and is the least used of the 3 uk agencies so most people would probably put the least reliance on this.

What you need to do is look at your credit reports from the 3 agencies, check that all the info in accurate, check that all show you are on the electoral roll (if you are not then get on it straight away as this has a major impact on whether you can get any credit).

Btw experian is the 3rd agency (also known as creditexpert).

Trajal

To be honest the numbers that both these companies give you are pretty much meaningless.

The reason being is that when a company does a credit search on you they will have their own scorecards and systems that they use to rate the information provided by the CRA. The CRA does not give them a yes or no answer, it just provides data which is then analyzed by the financial institutions themselves and the underwriting department (or an automated system) will then give a yes or no.

In terms of building your credit, you need to have had a number of credit lines open for at least 2 years with no blemishes to be considered for the better financial products and rates (although this is far from an exact science). There are many articles on these forums which give you ideas on how to improve the way your credit file looks to potential credit providers which I suggest you take a look at using searches etc.

The numbers aren't entirely useless though, although they can be misleading. What you should concentrate on doing is building up established lines of credit and repaying more than the minimum amount each month. Paying in full will make you more attractive to some providers, but to others, earning a little interest from you won't hurt too much either, so long as you leave plenty of headroom and pay more than the minimum.

Now when you do that, the numbers that you are quoted should be starting to increase. It's that increase which can be valuable to know when you're doing the right thing and when you aren't. However because each lender has their own criteria, it's best to avoid thinking about that number in general, just run credit that you can afford to repay comfortably, don't have too many credit lines, don't have too few, and make sure that you don't miss a single payment.

Hope that helps.

connormill

Well I tried to get a score from CreditExpert and they wanted me to phone up with more details, is this normal?

I am on the electoral register.

I dont have any real credit so to speak, I don't have a credit card (apart from the cashplus credit builder) I have an overdraft, but don't really use it and the only load I've ever had was a payday loan just before christmas which is on one of the credit reports but not the other.

I had applied for a barclays initial card and a capital one classic (stupidly applied for both in quick succession) but got declined for both, granted that was a couple of months ago and i would like to have a credit card, to build up my rating more than anything else. I have seen the Granite card and thought that could be an option to look at, but I'm not too sure. The intrest rate is bad, but as I would pay it in full every moth I'm not too fussed. But, I don't want to apply and get rejected again and have yet another search on my file.
Any advice guys?

Tixy

Usually the CRAs only ask for more information if they are struggling to confirm your identity. Its would be worth getting your experian report - either by ringing with info or by requesting the postal report. Its possible that perhaps they have mistakenly not got your correctly registered on the electoral roll, which happens occasionally (and could explain both the reason you couldn't get an instant report and possibly why you have been declined for even subprime cards).

Once you've checked that then I would wait a few months before applying for anything else (as it sounds like you have made 3 applications recently?) and then perhaps try for the vanquis card.

This might also be worth a read if you haven't seen it yet - Credit Rating: How it works and how to improve it

connormill

Yeah, I've read the bit on credit ratings and found it very helpful

Well, i have made 2 applications for credit cards and a loan through my bank, but I don't think the loan shows up on my credit report, as the application was 3 months ago and neither of the reports I have, have the Lloyds loan on there but both my overdraft on it.

The 2 credit card application were made in January, should I wait another couple of months before applying for another?

But i will make sure to get a report from credit expert once i have some free time I will give them a phone

Trajal

Hmm... People do say wait etc on a lot of the mainstream or better credit products.

I have to say I completely broke from all of that and did a ton of applications within a few months of one another. I managed to get 2 catalogues (order some socks, pay a couple of quid per month, it's an open credit file) and 2 credit cards (which I use for my weekly shops and pay all but £10 each month, so they earn a little interest from me).

That said, I know full well that I shall not be able to apply for anything now for at least a year, however that's fine because I'll just use that time for good conduct on those credit lines I do have.

Bear in mind that sub-prime cards like vanquis and cap1 exist to allow people to build credit and those companies pretty much expect you to have gone to other places, been searched, been denied, before showing up at their door.

I was quite surprised when Vanquis authorised me for their aquis card, but it worked for me, I truly don't think it would do you any harm to try for a vanquis card. You won't be able to try for anything else for six months, but give vanquis a go.

Oh and whatever you do, don't go mad with the card or you'll not have any credit whatsoever until about 2018 !

KingElvis

^^ I agree, if you're breathing and human Vanquis should allow you to have a card

connormill

Vanquis sounds like a shout. tbh i don't care how low the limit is or how high the interest rates are, I just need to get one, use it a little, pay it off in full every month and build from there.

oh, and what is the general consensus on the creditbuilder offered by cashplus. I took it, but can't see it doing that much good. But I thought i would give it a go, seeing as I already have a cashplus card, and their euro card is among the best out there.