Martin's Money Saving Tips and CRA Scores

savagej

Has anyone read Martin's tips for this week and noticed that he is advising against wasting money on buying these scores as they mean little.

What do people who have them included with their Credit Expert membership do (I don't know much about the Equifax one and Noddle one is free), can they have them removed as I just pay for the credit file without the score.

I wonder if there is war coming between him and the Experian Rep? As you could go back through James Jones posts and find him stating the opposite.

:eek:

JohalaReewi

savagej wrote: »

Has anyone read Martin's tips for this week and noticed that he is advising against wasting money on buying these scores as they mean little.

No

What do people who have them included with their Credit Expert membership do (I don't know much about the Equifax one and Noddle one is free), can they have them removed as I just pay for the credit file without the score.

Probably not that bothered if they are paying a monthly fee instead of £2 for the report.

I wonder if there is war coming between him and the Experian Rep? As you could go back through James Jones posts and find him stating the opposite.
:eek:

Doubt it.

Gromitt

I've never viewed my score to be honest. I get the report free once a year and pay the £2 if I get rejected for a credit application. I see them advertised for rediculous figures like £14.95 when I've never seen the point of the score as there is so many different ways of calculating it.

So no, don't know and I doubt it.

JuicyJesus

CreditExpert is an absolute, 100%, iron-clad waste of money.

If you check your credit report once per month through Experian then you will still be alerted to any changes on your credit file, and you'll only be paying £2 a month rather than the £15 CE costs.

The scores are absolutely functionally useless. What Experian think of your history is irrelevant, as what you actually want to know is what lenders think of it, which you won't find out without doing an application for credit.

savagej

I think Experian can be pretty protective about their score and now it is out their that it and others is more or less irrelvant i can't see them not acting. After all this is partly their reputation on the line?

Experian_company_representative

I do not recommend the Experian Credit Score on here but I have from time to time clarified what it is, what it isn't and explained why it can be useful.

While we aren't a lender, many lenders take our data and tools, including scores. Some of these scores are just based on credit report data (like the Experian Credit Score you can get), some assess a wider range of data, including income and third party credit report data. Some scores are built to the lender's criteria, some are off the shelf. So what I'm saying is, the ECS is not pointless or useless; it provides an expert assessment of your credit report from people who know about credit scoring. Of course, you can get an ECS of 999 (top score) and still be refused credit because, of course, lenders also look at other things. You just have to understand what the score is and what it can tell you - then you can make your own mind up whether you want to get yours.

James Jones

savagej

Can you explain why Martin's opinion is wrong? You state it is not pointless or useless, but Martin in his newsletter states "You DON'T have a credit rating and there's no blacklist. Ignore credit agencies' attempts to flog you your specific 'score'. It means little as each lender scores you differently (for each product)."

Reading between the lines he is saying it is pointless and useless and not to buy it as it is waste of money.

Doondie

Since Experian is not the only CRA, it's pointless to discuss its product.
I've checked my Experian credit report in the past, as well as my Equifax report & score (got 2 free reports per year as a CapitalOne CC holder) but haven't tried CallCredit yet.

Anyhow! In my opinion, a credit score isn't just a randomly generated number. It's what the CRA thinks your credit worthiness is based on the information it holds about you and your commitments - essentially the higher the score, the better. Since this score is based on their data and understanding, the score is just an indication as to what you could expect when applying for a certain product. It's not a universal score, as it doesn't factor individual lenders' criteria.
A credit score also comes with useful information about what's influenced their assessment and with advice what you could do to change things.

This is why I agree with Martin Lewis that people don't really have a rating, as CRA's scores are merely subjective indicators but at the same time I don't consider the credit scoring service CRA's offer to be useless.

As to blacklisting... I'm inclined to believe that while there isn't an official blacklist, people DO get blacklisted behind the scenes. I've personally experienced that - lest than 3 years ago a bank wasn't happy doing business with me anymore (for reasons I totally disagreed with but trying to make them listen to reason was a lost cause), so they passed their picture of events on to another bank I opened an account with, which closed my account as a consequence without saying why they'd done it but it was clear why. The same scenario repeated with the next bank (a BS actually), who were unbelievably prejudicial and even insulting. However, another bank agreed to open and maintain a basic account for me in 2009, which in a year it upgraded to a normal bank account, then in 6 months issued me with a credit card (with now 2,000 credit limit, which for my low income isn't at all that little). Another bank also opened a normal account for me and gave me a credit card on the 5th month with a 1,700 credit limit and a 13-month 0% interest period for both purchases and BT's.
Why am I saying all that? Just to outline that there may not be blacklists but there surely is blacklisting (which in some cases is actually pure defaming) and some banks and building societies actually allow themselves to be influenced by another bank's subjective point of view without thinking that they might in fact be wrong.

P.S. If anyone's interested, I can tell about the whole odyssey in more detail, as I don't think mentioning bank/BS names would prove anything now.

savagej

Interesting stuff Doondie, I also think there is a list of "dodgy addresses" they use were they see the risk of opening an account there too high and decline an application based on that.

I brought up the Experian score for two reasons, one unlike with Equifax who let you buy your credit report on-line to view it daily (not the statutory report which both provide) without a score, Experian now include the score in the price (I got it before they did that so I have the choice to buy it separately) so you have no choice but to buy it. Secondly there is no Equifax Rep on here as far as I know and Experian are very protective of their products and reputation and I don't think will take this matter "lying down". They must generate a good bit of revenue these days from people buying their combined credit file and score and people pay more attention to Martin I beleive than they do Experian's opinion on the matter; so Experian and Equifax could lose money because of this.

I also have a Noddle account and when it is functioning better I won't be buying credit expert any longer, as their score is free and they hold just as much information.