Credit Score Plummets 85 Points in a Month?

mack83

Hi

I had a score of 390 which has been downgraded to 305 by Equifax:
This has taken me from the border of "fair" and "good" to "poor".

The only difference from the last credit score was that accounts at my current address were updated from 1 Active agreement to 3.

This is Mobile Phone, Current Account w. £100 overdraft facility (unused, offered as a 'buffer') and an Overdraft Account w. £1,000 overdraft facility I use only for work expenses and is currently on neutral balance of £0.00

This seems pretty standard thing to have to me, but It seems to have plummeted my score by 85 points because of the late update to my credit report.

I was informed active credit accounts which are fully satisfied 'closed' were preferred over my active "open" and this has negatively impacted my appearance to lenders.

I have old defaults which I've worked hard to completely clear, and are sitting there waiting out the 6 years. However, it was heading in the right direction: now I feel like giving up!

I understood modest amount of credit was good, but I'm really not in any debt and only have a modest overdraft facility (for expenses)

Should I be shutting down my overdraft(s)?
Can I counter-act this score downgrade somehow?

Gordon_Hose

If you never use your O/D's then close them, or at minimum, reduce them to leave a small buffer.

Credit scores are worthless figures made up by CRA's to weed money out of us. Lenders don't see these numbers and don't, in any way, base their decisions on these random numbers.

Don't get hung up on a meaningless number. The only important thing you need to do is make sure all your accounts are paid and up to date. The more green dots the better. Make sure you're on the electoral role too.

mack83

Thanks for help.

I'll close the £100 buffer, but I guess keeping the overdraft facility for expenses is useful... I thought having this these modest OD facilities combined with the mobile phone registered to my current address was a good thing!

I'm on the electoral register for my current and past address, but that only covers just over the last 2 years (or so) Equifax are marking me down due to the fact I don't have full 3 years coverage.

Gordon_Hose

Do you intend to get credit in the near future?