Credit rating confusion

darbydoo

Hi All. Having been trying to build my credit rating up for a few years, I decided to use the "smart search" facility on moneysupermarket (the tool that does a soft search on your credit file to show what you could apply for).

Until recently, my rating on that tool had gone up to "good", which i was pleased about. I checked last week and it's now gone down to "poor" with no products matching my profile.

The only thing that's changed is that my partner has moved in with me and is now on the voter's roll. Could this have impacted my rating?
I also accidentally went overlimit on a credit card - something I haven't done for years.

I am thinking of paying for a my credit report, but wanted to ask if anyone has any ideas.

Thanks
Sarah

:beer:

nekosuki

Hi darbydoo

It'll be the going over-limit that's affecting you. Unless you and your partner have joint financial products (loans, bank accounts etc) - a "financial association", your personal credit scores won't be affected by the other's.

It's good practice to check your credit reports every so often - I get the £2 statutory ones rather than pay more but I think if you've not had it before/recently, you can get the "free trial" type things from the credit monitoring services run by Experian and the like.

Just remember if you do sign up to them, cancel within the "free" period!!