Comparison of credit reports

kilby_007

Hi guys, I have signed up to both experian and equifax to check my credit score and got two very different results:

Equifax: Score of 404. Credit rating "fair"

- shows 4 missed payments
- only recent checks are those made by myself

Experian: Score of 981 - Credit rating "excellent"

- shows 0 missed payments
- 5 recent checks from Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group all relating to mortgage enquiries.

My question is - why are the two reports so different? And do mortgage companies check credit in the same way? If the mortgage enquiries are only showing up on Experian does that mean that they made the searches with Experian only?

Also, why would they need to do so many credit checks with one company? They have done 5 in the last 3 days! This may just be FTB over-panicking but I've got that feeling of dread that my mortgage might get rejected :-(

dunstonh

My question is - why are the two reports so different?

The scores are internally calculated by them. They are effectively a score created to allow them to market their services to you and give you the impression that it is worth paying each month.

And do mortgage companies check credit in the same way?

The scores are not presented to the lenders who would not be interested in them one bit. The data is presented and its that which the lenders are interested in and make their own mind up from.

Also, why would they need to do so many credit checks with one company? They have done 5 in the last 3 days!

There are different types of check. Money laundering, ID, credit etc. One done on enquiry. Maybe another done at underwriting to check if there have been any changes (some people take weeks or months to go through those stages)

holly_hobby

Ok,

Yes Lloyds Banking group use Experian - which is why their searches only appear on your Experian record.

Again, missed payments showing on equifax means the firm use that Credit Ref Agency, which is why your arrears have been reported to them, and not Experian.

5 credit checks in as many days is a tad unusual .... but there could have been issues with the system, that caused a recheck to be necessary.

For example, I would expect one search, public domain search, if you applied for an AIP, and then another, full payment profile search, when the full application was submitted for processing and underwriting.

The credit scores shown with experian/equifax or call credit - have no relation to how a mortgage lender scores a mge application - so just ignore those figures they're are not relevant for the job in hand.

Hope this helps

Holly