Credit Report & Addresses

mandem0087

Hi everyone,

I'm thinking of hopefully applying for a mortgage in the near future and have a query about my credit report.

Basically I am renting at the moment and have done for the last five years so I have a couple of past addresses.

Address A is my parents home, which is where my bank account and credit card details were registered, along with an old mobile phone contract.
I then moved to address B where I have lived for the past 4 years or so. Halfway into the lease I changed my bank and credit card details to address B so my parents wouldn't have to hold onto bills for me when they arrived. I am also currently on the Electoral Roll here and have a phone contract at this address.
As of next month I will be moving into another rented apartment, address C. I will be on the council tax there and will be registering on the Electoral roll as well. My question is if I change my bank and credit card address and phone contract back to my parents (Address A) will this be a problem on a credit check? Or will they still be able to link all of my accounts to me?

Hope this makes sense! Looking at it I probably could have made it less confusing. Any help is much appreciated!

jamesd

They will still be able to link your accounts because when you tell places you've moved, they will tell the credit reference agencies. The CRA will see old and new address for you and know that it's still you, so they need to link the addresses and accounts.

Better to use the new place where you're really living than your parents' place unless you have really strong reasons for not wanting to that you haven't mentioned.

mandem0087

Thanks. Does having a number of addresses affect credit scores? or Does this have no bearing on them?

jamesd

Numbers of addresses like those you have won't be a problem. Huge numbers might be because that could be taken to indicate an unstable lifestyle and great ease of defaulting and hiding.

What matters most with addresses is:

1. Lenders being able to find them so they find your real credit record.
2. Time at the most recent address, the longer the better.
3. Not lots of changes in the last year or three. Once every six months or year isn't likely to be a big issue, creditors know how long tenancies are normally for. But a change every six months would be less good than one every three years, say, because of lower potential stability score.

mandem0087

Thanks a lot. Feel a lot better about it all now