Credit score damaged by new mobile account

SarahB1989_2

I recently bought a 3G dongle because I was moving to temporary accommodation where there's no wifi. I've just checked my credit score for the first time and listed as a negative factor is this new mobile account! Shouldn't it be explained at the time that this could happen? I knew applying for credit cards etc would damage it but never suspected buying a 3g dongle would because it's not credit at such, it's a direct debit. Was this probably mentioned in the small print somewhere and I missed it?

tinkerbell28

A mobile dongle will be reported to credit files, so yes you've missed the credit report/check disclaimer. So you should've read the contract.

What did you want explaining at the time? That the contract would dent your fictional score from experian?

It won't have done you any harm. Ignore that scaremongering nonsense they charge you a fee for.

The_Boss

You don't have a credit score so there is no need for them to advise you of damage to something that doesn't exist.

RichL74

Did they offer you lots of advice on how to get you non related rating back to excellent?

I suspect not.

datlex

Credit agencies negative factors are a joke. If you have a loan and regularly pay it and also use a credit card and pay that off in full, they will say that a negative factor is the fact you pay the same amount to credit each month...... go figure!!

A 3G dongle is run on a mobile sim, so basically works the same way as a mobile. Be careful with the data, you can't watch videos on it easily for example - so no YouTube, Iplayer etc unless you want high additional costs. I used "onspeed" for a while - you do get better data usage but be careful of their auto renewal.

ValHaller

Truth be told, Experian and the rest want you to be anxious about your so-called 'credit score' so that they can keep skimming you for money every month.

So first of all, a credit rating out of 10 would be more than sufficient to tell the tale. But by making it out of 1000, quite trivial events will knock the score one way or the other. And a new trivial credit account such as a dongle is just another opportunity to change the score by a trivial amount and keep people hooked to their so-called 'credit score'.

If everyone gave dongle providers hell for the fact that their credit score dropped when taking on a dongle account, you might find that Experian modified their calculation algorithm.

[Deleted User]

Perhaps if you had gone PAYG instead?

mattyprice4004

It's checked the same as when you apply for a credit card - it's not their problem to educate you on what does and doesn't affect your score. You need to learn that yourself.