Credit score bands.

YorkshireBoy

tom188 wrote: »

It may also be worth asking whether the OP is under the misapprehension that these scores are actually used by lenders in some way.

Tom,

Martin Lewis says in his credit rating article that "around 30% of lenders do use an agency's 'rating' as part of their scoring process". (Of the CRA's themselves, he goes on to say that they "have all types of clever-sounding products, that they want us to pay for, yet actually aren't that useful").

However, my own view is that these will be the smaller lenders. IMO, there's no way that the likes of the big 5 banks and MBNA, Morgan Stanley, etc will use Experian's 'score' - they'll have their own in-house underwriting teams and use the Experian 'raw data' only (that which you get on your own £2 copy of your credit report) to reach their decisions.

Just as an aside, let me qualify my earlier statement to the OP who, despite saying "any advice greatly appreciated", then went on to abuse me)...

I’m a credit card stoozer and have only ordered my ‘score’ once (in the interest of ‘research’). Despite having nearly 200% of my salary in unsecured credit card debt (and 250% of salary as available credit), a mortgage, and a 0% car loan, my score was 980 and excellent. That’s the reason I think the score is meaningless - and, therefore, worthless if you’re buying it.

xgingerx

Hi, i think if you need reassurance then it is a good indicator, personally I agree with saint that just looking at your report should give you a good idea, but saying that I undertand a lot about what makes your score go up or down so for me its easier to second guess, ie 1 or 2 searches in the last 6 months will max your score in this area compared to having 5 or more as an example, no missed payments, having accounts opened for 18 months or more is better than havinga report full of new accounts under 1 year old, being on the electoral role for 3 years or more at current address is better than only been on for 1 year aor worse still not at all, credit scoring is a complicated, unbiased view of your credit history, there are tons and tons of websites on the subject.

millsee

Another way of looking at it would be this.

Say you ordered your "score" from Experian and it was 800.

Say you then ordered your "score" from Equifax and it was 850.

Which would you believe?

You would, probably, think: "No problem. They've got different ways of working the score out".

And you would be right to think that. In the same way, different lenders have different ways of working out what the score is.

That's way it is largely meaningless. You can't say "I'll get an Egg Card if my score is 900."

Banks will only lend you money if they think they are going to make a profit out of you. Your track record in repaying is but one part of that decision.

Clariman

Just to spell this out so there is no doubt. Each lender users their own credit scoring criteria to assess a credit application. No UK lender that I am aware of, goes to Experian to ask for your "credit score". They ask Experian (or one of the other 2 CRAs) to send details of your "credit history". Your Credit History is full of factual information that the lenders use to assess your application.

Experian's "Credit Score" is not factual information - it is merely one CRA's opinion of how an average lender might view you. As an example, my Experian score was 997 Excellent last year, yet I was rejected for a card by Co-op Bank.

I think Experian are a bit cheeky referring to their Credit Score opinion as "Your National Credit Score" . I suspect that the name has been carefully chosen to imply that it is used more widely than it is.

So just to confirm ....
To the best of my knowledge, no UK lender asks for Experian's Credit score when making a lending decision

Armed with that information, by all means pay for it, but it is going to be no more than an indication of how a lender might perceive you.

Rather than swear at those who are genuinely trying to help, I think the OP should accept that people were posting in her interests.

Clariman

exel1966

Well said Clariman !! Some people hear only what they want to hear !!

MABLE

Despite of what posters say I know for a fact that Barclaycard do take notice of the score from Equifax.

thesaint

MABLE wrote: »

Despite of what posters say I know for a fact that Barclaycard do take notice of the score from Equifax.

Are you allowed to tell us?

Afahmaep

As a little lesson in the practical advantages of using the Experian service here is my Case History from 02/03/05 until 01/03/06. The Annual fee was about £49 and I made 9 'purchases' of my credit score at £5.00 a time so spent just under £100.
My intention was to see how far I could go in obtaining Credit and to what degree lenders would lend against those limits. I already possessed 20 Credit Cards and during those 12 months the number varied between 18 and 21. By trial and error and trying to get the balance right I managed 2 months AFTER my subscription ended to peak at £99,306.20 owing (read 'stoozed') against an improbable £127,290 available. Since then I have made just 2 £2.00 requests for my reports through the post.
Interestingly my rating has never touched above the 952 mark and NEVER touched on EXCELLENT and my guess is I was and am seen as being a prospective long term debtor.
It surprises me that Positive Balances are never taken into account so even with a positive balance of let's say £10k in a Current Account it is the Negative Overdraft facility that is taken into account and shows on your file
[HTML]DATE SCORE RATING OWING CREDIT LIMIT %
06/03/2005 952 V GOOD £29,599.05 £106,000.00 27.92%
07/03/2005 861 GOOD £29,599.05 £106,000.00 27.92%
07/04/2005 861 GOOD £37,067.56 £108,800.00 34.07%
11/05/2005 851 GOOD £46,294.36 £116,400.00 39.77%
04/06/2005 942 V GOOD £45,984.92 £113,000.00 40.69%
01/08/2005 952 V GOOD £34,132.24 £105,850.00 32.25%
08/11/2005 616 POOR £52,717.82 £113,300.00 46.53%
20/12/2005 801 FAIR £69,517.11 £114,890.00 60.51%
02/03/2006 740 FAIR £78,154.80 £115,190.00 67.85%

14/05/2006 £99,306.20 £127,290.00 78.02%[/HTML]

thesaint

Afahmaep, What does your post show with regards to purchasing your credit score?

exel1966

To me it shows that he was still able to get substantial credit the lower his so called 'score' got showing just how unworthwhile these fictitious scores are and proving that lenders will judge their decision on their own criteria and not a fictitious number !