Weird credit refusals since moving house

leejones_san

Totally baffled by this one and hope someone might have some ideas. I moved to a new flat in January and have since been having some problems related to credit checks. The first and most ridiculous was that I asked for the pre-pay gas meter in the flat to be replaced by a standard meter, but failed the credit check. I signed up with Equifax to check my credit report but the only thing awry was that I was not yet on the electoral roll - pretty standard given that I'd just moved. This was rectified. I thought I would leave it for a few months so there were no more checks on my file, and then try again. But just this month, my bank, Santander, asked me to shift my current account from Zero to 123 (both with Santander). I agreed, but the credit check for a £1,000 overdraft failed, even though I have a £1,250 overdraft (never used) on my Zero Current Account. Again fearing that something was amiss, this time I signed up to Experian, but again there are no obvious problems. The score was about 830 out of 930 or so and ranked 'fair' (which seems strangely low for someone with no outstanding debts and no prior problems).

I have never defaulted on any debt repayments, I pay my credit card off in full every month (except during 0% interest balance transfer offers that I have used twice), I have £26k in savings and income of over £2.6k a month. Yet I am apparently a credit risk to get a pay-monthly gas meter?! I can understand the overdraft rejection (they want to make a profit, and if I never use my existing overdraft, they may not want to give me one). But the gas meter is just weird and I am now worried about doing anything credit related.

I would really appreciate any ideas you might have. I went through the MSE guide on this very carefully but, apart from cancelling an unused credit card, I'm at a loss.

InsideInsurance

New flat - is that just new to you or a new build?

When you compare how you write your address/ how Royal Mail stores your address does this match perfectly with how the Credit Reference Agencies have it?

At a previous address I had we had the problem that Royal Mail/ we had it one way but the CRAs had it slightly differently and so when companies were doing a search they were getting no match for my current address

jamesd

You'll need to get more information about the reasons given from the places you've been applying to. They can tell you what information they received and you can compare that to the correct information to work out what is happening.

be sure to start the discussion in a friendly and puzzled way, asking them to help you sort out a problem that one of their customers is having. The places you've been applying to are probably also being misled by something as well, so probably aren't the ones to blame.

Gas company is probably the best place to try first. You've got some history with them now so they should know that you're not just trying to scam them but are really trying to sort out what's going wrong with the checks.

It's normal for there to be a drop in score just after moving but this has gone on too long to be that.

A perfect address match does matter. So does knowing that the places you're applying to can find the address. Some places are quite slow to update their records and for newly built properties in new areas it can cause some not to be able to even know that the address exists, in spite of supplying a service to it in pipes and cables.

neil_999

Have you supplied Experian with the last 6yrs of addresses? If not there could be accounts from previous addresses that you are not seeing but the lenders are.

It does seem strange - your score should be 999, or close to it. Does Experian have anything listed in the "negative factors"? These are pretty useless but good to give you an idea.

I'm in NO WAY suggesting you show anyone, but it really is difficult without seeing it

leejones_san

Thanks everyone. I should have been clearer that the flat isn't a new-build but was just new for me (it's a conversion, done c.2006). The address matches what is on Equifax and Experian.

The only thing listed as negative on Experian is the recent application for the Santander 123 account.

I haven't added six addresses to Experian - there are only two - but I will try this. Thanks for the suggestion.

I hadn't realised that you could ask a company why you have been declined, so that is also useful advice.

Any further ideas very gratefully received!

leejones_san

Quick update. Added six years of addresses and it found a £10.38 default with Virgin Media from 2009. I think this is an error on their part so I am chasing them. But that has reduced my score to 751, which I would think suggests that this wasn't the cause of my credit score being 832 - which, according to neil_999, is too low for my circumstances.

Any further thoughts?

leejones_san

I did also notice one other anomaly of sorts. I have 173 "linked addresses". A lot of this is because different firms have duplicate entries, but it is also partly because I have moved a lot (10 years of study will do that do you), and in one case I had a weird address (I was living in a flat at an Oxford college, with my post going to the college but my actual flat address being different, and quite a few entries are variants on one or the other of this address, not all of them very accurate). Is there any way this could be making a difference? If so, how to fix so many duplications/ problems?

geekonthepc

173? Even for a student, that seems very high.

The default will definitely not have helped - any default is a really bad warning sign to lenders, no matter how small it is. Get virgin media to correct that as soon as possible. It won't drop off until 2015, so you don't want that to be holding you down for the next 2 years.

With regards to the addresses - I'd say best thing is to contact Experian and get them to investigate. There shouldn't be any reason for the number to be that high.

neil_999

It might well be the cause...a default will reduce your score significantly - you need to get rid of that to see any worthwhile improvement.

A bit harsh they marked a default for £10.38 mind!