Experian Credit Score

GingerFurball_2

Is it just me, or is Experian advertising the random number they generate as a credit score when people know that lenders credit score them extremely misleading?

Probably deliberately so, but IMO they shouldn't be allowed to market it as a "score".

The_Boss

They deliberatly mislead for sure...lots of talking about "your credit score" and the product they sell is an "Experian credit score", which is how they get around it. The information in the part of the website where they sell it is vague, but more info is available if you hunt for it.

a4a

It's a score they give you based on their opinion of you from the information they have about you, so there is nothing wrong with it being called a score. The fact they call it a score is not misleading.

If you were to give me some information about yourself, I could give you a score of how I consider you.

The_Boss

a4a wrote: »

It's a score they give you based on their opinion of you from the information they have about you, so there is nothing wrong with it being called a score. The fact they call it a score is not misleading.

If you were to give me some information about yourself, I could give you a score of how I consider you.

Thing is they don't call it 'a score' they refer to it as 'your credit score', implying that there is more meaning behind it than there is. That's my big beef. Last time I looked there was nothing on the page where they attempt to get you to sign up that explained that it is purely down to their perception of you from the data. Or nothing that linked that page to anything. Obviously the information is on the website buried away elsewhere...

I guess what makes it worse is that if people apply for credit and are rejected they either get a screen message, email or letter saying "We have used data from credit reference agencies such as Experian in making this decision" (or along similar lines, or without their name in the text but included afterwards with a suggestion to check the file) along with a link to the website. People then go to the website to investigate and the first thing they see is this advert for 'your credit score' which results in them paying up and ending up confused.

The_Boss

Also just to say that around this time last year I challenged James Jones on the points above many times but never did receive any response from him.

a4a

The_Boss wrote: »

Thing is they don't call it 'a score' they refer to it as 'your credit score', implying that there is more meaning behind it than there is. That's my big beef. Last time I looked there was nothing on the page where they attempt to get you to sign up that explained that it is purely down to their perception of you from the data. Or nothing that linked that page to anything. Obviously the information is on the website buried away elsewhere...

I guess what makes it worse is that if people apply for credit and are rejected they either get a screen message, email or letter saying "We have used data from credit reference agencies such as Experian in making this decision" (or along similar lines, or without their name in the text but included afterwards with a suggestion to check the file) along with a link to the website. People then go to the website to investigate and the first thing they see is this advert for 'your credit score' which results in them paying up and ending up confused.

Yes I get this and in the main I agree.

However, I also believe that in many circumstances (more than half and probably 80/90% of the time), the credit score that the CRA gives is a fairly accurate assessment of how a lender views you.

I also believe, that for the same reason as a consumer can easily and quickly get a snapshot of how a CRA views them, a lender can do the same.

a4a

The_Boss wrote: »

Also just to say that around this time last year I challenged James Jones on the points above many times but never did receive any response from him.

This does not surprise me......they don't want to reveal the truth.

They are all in it together, lenders and CRA's.