Confused about credit reference agencies

nicx1

Over the past year or so I have been working on improving and tidying up my credit profile by using Experian but tonight I came across Noddle which has given me a rating of 2/5. They had my old address on it which I've updated now so will this improve my score? I couldn't see anything else on it which would have a negative impact, but then I didn't pay to see my full credit score....

I have always kept an eye on my Experian report and a couple of months ago was refused a shared ownership mortgage and now I'm starting to think it may be because companies are using other credit agencies other than Experian that hold inaccurate information about me?

Should I be using Experian, Noddle and Equifax? They all seem to charge for accessing full credit reports and it seems a bit much to have to pay 3 subscription charges just to find out what information each holds.

Which one should I be using?!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, I seem to get myself all in a muddle and confused when it comes to this sort of thing!

CreditCrunchie

They tend to use Experian and equifax. Noddle (callcredit) are useful for checking your details but nothing more. Not many places will check there for your credit worthiness. The 'scores' on any if these agencies though have no relevance as they are not included on the information that is given out.

Don't sign up for any subscriptions as these are just scams to get your money. Noddle is free and both equifax and Experian will provide a statutory report for £2 (search for experian/ equifax 2, as they make it quite difficult to find this info on their actual websites).

The_Boss

Yeah, as above you don't need to subscribe to Experian and Equifax - just get the £2 statutory report.

Also ignore any scores issues by CRAs as they do not exist in the real world.