NPower suddenly appears on my file

tinkerbell28

PaulW922 wrote: »

I think you are just being difficult here aren't you? You know what he means. Any potential lender who looks at your file and sees positive payment information will be able to take that into account when deciding if your rating, based on their own model, is sufficient to grant you credit.

Not really no. As an Experian rep I wanted to clarify what rating he meant. The banks? Experian's. After all Experian's score is a a product they sell. So I would like to think it was not self promotion or placing undue importance on the company's rating they sell.

Which as you'll see from this board, a lot of people find wholly inaccurate.

Thrugelmir

tinkerbell28 wrote: »

Not really no. As an Experian rep I wanted to clarify what rating he meant. The banks? Experian's. After all Experian's score is a a product they sell. So I would like to think it was not self promotion or placing undue importance on the company's rating they sell.

Which as you'll see from this board, a lot of people find wholly inaccurate.

What matters is the positive history. Negative history will score against an applicant. With more good history then minor blips will be overlooked. Technology has changed the way risk is determined. So better to adapt to the new rules than moan endlessly , as there's no turning the clock back.

GingerBob_3

Thrugelmir wrote: »

What matters is the positive history. Negative history will score against an applicant.

(Just got back from banging my head against a brick wall)

So they both matter then. Positive and negative!

Back to the head banging - the thrust of this thread is that companies such as NPower cannot be trusted to provide accurate infomation, and this could have serious effects on your ability to obtain credit. In my book the answer to that is to stop the likes of NPower reporting details of your account.

This entire board is littered with instances of incorrect data being supplied to the CRAs and the problems it causes. It's all very well for the Experian and other reps to glibly come along and explain how you can do something about it (difficult and time consuming), but the truth of the matter is, the more data that's collected the bigger the problems are going to be.

SRT81

Yorkshire Water's on my Experian as well now.

Touch-wood they don't seem to be as incompetent as nPower.

GingerBob_3

SRT81 wrote: »

Yorkshire Water's on my Experian as well now.

Touch-wood they don't seem to be as incompetent as nPower.

They are the only water company doing this at the moment. They just went ahead and did it; didn't inform customers. They get nothing from it themsleves, so one wonders why they do it

Here's a tip when dealing with utility companies:

Supply them with the bare minimum of personal information, and definitely not your date of birth. For security purposes you might consider giving a false DoB. That way, if they loose it, if their systems are hacked, or if someone steals it (see the recent Morrisions case), the effect will be reduced. If you inherit a supply when moving, let them know you as "the occupier".

tinkerbell28

Thrugelmir wrote: »

What matters is the positive history. Negative history will score against an applicant. With more good history then minor blips will be overlooked. Technology has changed the way risk is determined. So better to adapt to the new rules than moan endlessly , as there's no turning the clock back.

I'm not sure what that has to do with my post at all, I was trying to clarify what James meant by "improve your credit rating". As to me that reads as basing importance on some kind of score/rating. Whose?

As if he was referring to Experian's it's meaningless really.

My utilities have been reporting to the CRA'S for years now (BG), so I don't really care nor do I need to adapt or turn the clock back. As I don't have any negatives on my file at all. Which is why my posts were not anything to do with that at all.

Thrugelmir

tinkerbell28 wrote: »

I'm not sure what that has to do with my post at all, I was trying to clarify what James meant by "improve your credit rating".

If you pay your bills on time then there'll be no entry on the CRA databases. So will be a positive factor.

GingerBob_3

Thrugelmir wrote: »

If you pay your bills on time then there'll be no entry on the CRA databases. So will be a positive factor.

That wall is really beginning to suffer!

Tell me Thrugelmir, and I don't mean to sound insulting, but are you being deliberately obtuse?

tinkerbell28

Thrugelmir wrote: »

If you pay your bills on time then there'll be no entry on the CRA databases. So will be a positive factor.

OFC there will be an entry, there is two. One for gas and one for electric. That's not what I was asking. What I was asking was how that affects my "rating" as the Experian rep says. Whose rating. Is what I want to know, what rating. It's not that hard a question.

Seen as credit ratings don't really exist. Out of the CRA's sellable scores. Every lender will have their own rating platforms/criteria. So it's impossible to say whether it will be positive or not. Unless Experian amd you believe you speak for all lenders.

SRT81

Thrugelmir wrote: »

If you pay your bills on time then there'll be no entry on the CRA databases. So will be a positive factor.

There'll be an entry regardless of the account's status.

My issue with nPower reporting my utilities' status is that there are arrears on my account because of nPower's balls-up through continued incompetence (see my post earlier in the thread) that I've been left to deal with.

But in simple black and white it looks like I've not been paying my bills, which just wasn't the case.

Hence why I'm in the process of sending a notice of correction to Experian.