Credit Rating Confusion

Wally85

To summarise my situation, i built up a decent amount of credit card and unsecured loan debt a few years back (+/-£6k credit cards and a £2k loan), i have paid it all off now.
I had one default for £190 (ah the stupidity of it ) which was satisfied but apart from that and a couple of late payments nothing else major. This all started in 2007 and ended in 2010. (default was then and thats when i seen the light and started paying everything back.

Fast forward to now, i am looking to buy a property so thought i better check my credit rating... heard about noddle so headed there first, got the credit report... and was shocked to see a very poor score of 500. I kind of half expected a mediocre score but was really looking to be in the good side of things. Like i said i had default for a relatively low amount but have a large amount of settled accounts, loans and credit cards. I currently use a personal credit card for work expenses so that gets like £2k bought and cleared back to zero every month. So i genuinely thought that would at least offset the default...apparently not.

So i figured i would check out another credit company since the above didn't make sense to me, so off to Experian... Get the score..... 961 - excellent. um.....

OK so one site puts me in the lowest bracket, the other the top. Who to believe? What is my score? Totally confused, any advice greatly appreciated. Should i just assume i am in the middle somewhere??

[Deleted User]

Wally85 wrote: »

OK so one site puts me in the lowest bracket, the other the top. Who to believe? What is my score?

You don't have a score. They're all guesses by the various companies based on the various information they have about you and without knowing if you have a job or not. And no one sees their guesses apart from you. The only thing that matters is the info on your files.

500 is good for Noddle though. Their scale only goes up to 5.

Wally85

Deleted_User wrote: »

You don't have a score. They're all guesses by the various companies based on the various information they have about you and without knowing if you have a job or not. And no one sees their guesses apart from you. The only thing that matters is the info on your files.

500 is good for Noddle though. Their scale only goes up to 5.

Not the actual Credit Score part it must start at around 500 and finish near 1000. I am rated 1/5 on what you mention. See pic below: (edit- oh apparently i'm not allowed to include links)

Experian is used by companies i thought to gather information so they must have an idea about how the scores are actually put together i would have thought.

[Deleted User]

Wally85 wrote: »

Experian is used by companies i thought to gather information so they must have an idea about how the scores are actually put together i would have thought.

The companies use the data. They don't use the scores. All lenders have different criteria, so there is no way that a single score could reflect your appeal to different lenders. Especially without income information.

Tixy

Having a default on your credit file will mean most lenders will consider you high risk.

In terms of a mortgage even though this is a smallish default this is likely to mean quite a lot of mainstream mortgage lenders won't consider an application from you, or not without a very high deposit/low ltv.

If you are planning to apply for a mortgage whilst the default is still on file I would speak to an independant mortgage broker with copies of all 3 of your credit reports (not the scores the actual raw data on the report). They'll be best able to advise if you are likely to find a mortgage lender willing to lend with the deposit you have.
They should be able to give an indication as to what APR you may end up paying (likely higher than the most competitive rates on the market).

Wally85

Tixy wrote: »

Having a default on your credit file will mean most lenders will consider you high risk.

In terms of a mortgage even though this is a smallish default this is likely to mean quite a lot of mainstream mortgage lenders won't consider an application from you, or not without a very high deposit/low ltv.

If you are planning to apply for a mortgage whilst the default is still on file I would speak to an independant mortgage broker with copies of all 3 of your credit reports (not the scores the actual raw data on the report). They'll be best able to advise if you are likely to find a mortgage lender willing to lend with the deposit you have.
They should be able to give an indication as to what APR you may end up paying (likely higher than the most competitive rates on the market).

Ah the makes it all the more irritating defaulting for such a stupid amount..and i just found out that it will be on my report for 6 years!!!

Thanks for the advice will definitely contact a mortgage broker and get their advice.