Just a quickie

JFC_2

I have posted something similar on the credit rating thread at the top and I apologise for sneaking onto the main board with this but I am hoping that this may be read by more people able to give me a bit of advice.

Having recently sorted my life out I purchased my online credit report from experian. I was horrified to see such a low score of 462. The only negative was arrears of £4.00 - late payment which has now been disputed and aggreed by the company to remove.

Would one arrears of £4.00 really result in such a low score, and am I being too optimistic to think once this has been removed my score will bounce up to a healthy level.

I will give you a bit of background into my finances

I have never missed a payment on a card, loan, mortgage etc..but I was finding them a struggle until recently when my mum helped me out and paid everything off. I now just have a mortgage of £43,000 (due to end in September this year) with over £400,000 of equity in my property. I have 3 cards with empty balances but with available credit in total of 26,000. I wanted to close these but was advised this is more likely to mess up my credit score than help it. Something to do with balance to available balance ratio.

I have a small amount owing to a mail order company, not in arrears.

Now my reason for wanting to check my score is that my boyfriend has told me he intends to sell up and for us to split once our youngest leaves 6th form in 2 years, so I am anxious to get my score in order in case I need to apply for a mortgage. I am basicaly scared by the score and what it means for my future.

Does anyone know why else it would be so low and/or it is just the £4.00 arrears and once this has gone I will be 'normal' again

Sory for warbling on and on, but I am a little emotional at the moment and it feels like even my credit score is turning on me..:(

Tixy

Try not to worry too much about the score - it should be what is on your report that is important.

Are you on the electoral roll (and if you are does this show correctly on your credit report).

The £4 - was that just marked as a late payment - or is it actually down as the account being in default (and having a default date)?

3 empty cards with that much credit is a lot. When did you last use any of the cards? Best way to keep a good credit history is to actually make sure you are using some credit. So put a couple of purchases on one of the cards each month and pay off in full every statement. That way it won't cost you any interest and will keep a current active credit history.

Credit to debt ratio is relevant but if you have no unsecured debt then you don't need £26k of credit. I'd probably close one card, use one card (as above) and keep the other for emergencies. I'd also substanitally reduce the limits on them - £10k would still be loads.

JFC_2

Thanks Tixy,

I stupidly typed my credit score into google and all these links about being denied credit with such a laughably low score appeared, I feel a lot happier now that you have confirmed almost what Equifax said to me. They said lenders dont have access to their actual score but create their own based on the information.

This is the equifax comment regarding my score...which makes it sound better than it is:-

"Your score is highly predictive that you would be a good candidate for credit. Most credit grantors would consider this score good. While many factors other than your score influence the decision to grant credit, you will probably not be turned down for loans based on your score alone. Review your credit report page to see if there are areas that may be negatively impacting your score."


Then the individual comments were as follows:-

Good - You have 9 active accounts and 19 settled accounts on file at your current address. Credit grantors prefer that you have at least one or two accounts as part of your credit profile. Active accounts are preferred to settled accounts.

Excellent - Your oldest account is 8 or more years old. Credit grantors prefer to see accounts opened at least 3 years

Fair - Your payment history shows that you have previously been 1 month in arrears. While you haven't been significantly overdue in making payments, some credit grantors may not grant you credit if you have other risk signals present on your credit report. For more information about Insight data and what you might be able to do about it (this is the £4.00 late payment that will be removed

Fair - You are currently not making all your payments on time but are not significantly late in paying. This indicates you may be having problems repaying your debts. Credit grantors will view this negatively and you may have difficulty obtaining credit. Please review the section of your credit report entitled Credit Agreements to see your accounts. For more information about Insight data and what you can do about it, _ again relating to the above late payment (all others are up to date)
Excellent - Credit reference agencies are receiving periodic updates from your credit grantor(s) that reflect you have made payments on time in the past.
Excellent – you have no defaults
Good - You are presently shown as registered on the Electoral Roll. You've been registered at your current address for 12 years. This is looked upon favourably by credit grantors.
Excellent - You have had 1 search(es) for credit in the last six months. Credit grantors view more than one or two searches within six months unfavourably. Please review the section of your credit report entitled Previous Searches . For more information about credit searches and what you can do about them,
Excellent - You have no information in your credit report that indicates a Court Judgment or other public record information such as a bankruptcy in your name. Credit grantors view this favourably.

You have 9 active accounts and 19 settled accounts on file at your current address. Credit grantors prefer that you have at least one or two accounts as part of your credit profile. Active accounts are preferred to settled accounts.

Tixy

Your credit file looks good, once that late payment is removed it'll be even better. I'd still reduce some of your credit down a bit though.

Do you have any joint accounts with partner? does he show on your report in the financial assoicates section?

Sounds like you are not in for a good 2years living with partner but knowing he doesn't see a future togethr. Hope you can manage to use the time to squirrel away some savings perhaps.

PS whilst I would ignore the score - 462 from equifax is out of 600, whereas 462 from experian (out of 1000) would be a lot worse - so if you are looking on google some people might have 462 on experian. PPS - don't bother getting your experian score as thats also irrelevant

JFC_2

Oh I didnt realise that either Tixy, about Equifax being out of 600 I thought they were all out of 830. I feel a lot better now.

I just found this on their website which confirms exactly what you are saying. I cant tell you the relief of knowing I may be able to get a mortgage should I need a little extra to get a house for myself and my 3 children, although they will be 18, 20 and 24 at the time, they are all worried about being homeless after witnessing their fathers rages about selling up the family home. My daughter who is the youngest at just 16 is worried about leaving me to to Uni when she leaves school as she thinks I will be lonely, but to be honest living with someone who dosnt love you is far worse than living by yourself.

I cant thank you enough for your input Tixy, you have helped me cope today when I felt that everything was going completely wrong.

In answer to your question about joint accounts, we have one which was just taken out to receive joint income (endowment policy cheques etc). Although he has a car loan with Black Horse Finance in his own name, I did discover it was listed as a joint application a while ago on an expirian report, I wrote to Black Horse and they wrote back apologising and stating they would remove it from my credit file. It pays to be vigilant dosnt it?

Is it worth me getting another credit report next month to check the arrears comment has been removed?

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