A credit score question

Hewittc77

I tried to apply for a new mobile phone contract today with Tesco mobile but I was refused after a credit check.

I asked which company they use, euqifax, and decided to find out what my credit score looks like with them.

It comes up with a caution on the dashboard tool they use and when I look into this the only cautions listed on my credits, ie credit cards and store accounts is a couple of late payments in 2006 and one late payment in feb of 2010.

Is this the only reason that I was refused as it seems very minor?

Or could it be that I have quite a few credit cards listed (a lot of which I no longer have)?

Is it worth me trying to resolve this with Equifax and if so how? Or should I just try to get the phone from elsewhere or will the same
problems show up?

Many Thanks

edindie

I wouldn't have thought it was your level of credit, although that would impact upon your chances of geting another credit card.

It is always a good idea to cancel unused lines of credit. Both for accuracy and because it limits the possibility of previous address fraud (which is the most common kind of identity theft).

Tixy

Are you on the electoral roll? and is this showing on equifax?

Gordon_Hose

It may seem minor to you, but every company has different lending criteria. If you have a blemish on your file, as you do, then you may fail a credit check in one place, but pass at another.

KingElvis

Late payments aren't a show stopper like defaults, fraud or CCJs but some lenders will treat them more harshly than others.

izools

Sounds odd. I've had no trouble passing a Vodafone credit check for two lines and no deposit despite six defaults and a discharged bankruptcy on my credit file.

Is the credit search actually listed under "Previous searches" on your Equifax file? Are all of your accounts up to date at this present moment? Are there any defaults listed / have there been in the past?

tifo

i can never pass a vodafone credit check though i have no defaults or CCJ's anymore, only a few late payments on non-mobile accounts.

in this time i've had O2 contracts and a T-Mobile one. I've also recently got a Tesco mobile contract (who use O2). No late payments on any for many years.

but i got turned down by Talk mobile on a £5.11 sim only contract! (they use Vodafone) but then they wanted a £100 deposit (which is about 18 months of the tariff). I only wanted it for a family member for occasional use.

seems like Vodafone don't want my business!

ChowFan

I had this issue a while ago. Turned out to be an error on equifax's part. My current account had 'no address listed' so apparently I had no current account even though obviously had one. Only way I managed to find out was what was wrong was to get a credit score as the credit report didn't really show this. (ie, the credit report showed I had a current account but the credit score showed I had none! !!!!!!?)