Equifax score of 390, employment chances affected?

FinanceWoes

Stupidly, I'd forgotten about my student credit card after university (I thought I had paid it off) and the letters were going to my home address. It turns out I'd had six months in arrears (a very small amount overdue, in the region of £80).

It was settled as soon as I found out and thought nothing more of it.

I just got my credit report from Equifax and my payment history is shown as very poor owing to these 6 months arrears, with an overall score of 390 (fair). I've never been late paying for anything else and I have four credit accounts open at the moment. Nothing outstanding, everything else perfect - it seems those 6 months on the card have been red flagged.

I'm concerned that this will affect my chances of employment in the financial services sector as I'm studying to get into accountancy and I understand most firms require you to pass a credit check. Is a score of 390 going to affect me?

Thanks.

superstud

It will not effect your future employment prospects at all!

They can only see info such as CCJs etc.

This balance was sorted as soon as you found out so don't worry.

lvm

Was a default applied to this account following the 6 months? Does your credit file have a "date defaulted/delinquent" date? If it does, this would severely affect your chances of a job on the financial industry.

Also, when did this take place? Months or years ago?

FinanceWoes

lvm wrote: »

Was a default applied to this account following the 6 months? Does your credit file have a "date defaulted/delinquent" date? If it does, this would severely affect your chances of a job on the financial industry.

Also, when did this take place? Months or years ago?

Not as far as I know, on my file it shows in green as 'settled'. Only the dates shown are in red with 'late payment' and the next month is shown in green as 'settled'. It is also flagged on my main file as as 'late payment' rather than default.

This was 2 years ago.

lvm

FinanceWoes wrote: »

Not as far as I know, on my file it shows in green as 'settled'. Only the dates shown are in red with 'late payment' and the next month is shown in green as 'settled'. It is also flagged on my main file as as 'late payment' rather than default.

This was 2 years ago.

You should be fine applying for jobs then - they definitely reject you outright with a default but very few I think (if any) ask about late payments - there may be the odd 1 or 2 though.

However, even though any score provided from a CRA is absolutely worthless, a score of 390 for just late payments 2 years ago seems low. I'd check to make sure there's nothing else on here at all which could be impacting your overall credit worthiness.

fart

Actual credit rating won't affect you, but any defaults will. I went for temp customer services work in the financial sector and was denied after a successful interview due to a default from 4 years ago.

izools

It really depends on the employer, not the sector you work in.

My OH was allowed to work in a position where he performed credit checks on individuals, handled large amounts of cash, personal data, and expensive stock despite at the time having an outstanding CCJ and several defaults.

I was allowed to work (in)validating and scoping works for insurance claims as an undischarged bankrupt five years ago.

Matthew_c

Any police role that you apply for with a default may throw up issues

wiseshark

Matthew_c wrote: »

Any police role that you apply for with a default may throw up issues

A criminal record will throw a spanner in the works too for many organisations.:eek: