What do lenders actually see?

sdh2903

I was speaking to a lady from creation finance today who I have a complaint with at present with regards some AP markers from 7 years ago. The account was settled in 2011 so is visible to me until 2017.

The lady was basically trying to tell me that lenders only see the last 6 years so they won't cause me any problems.

So what do lenders actually see when doing a credit search? I was under the impression they can see exactly what I see??

MrSilk

I've always thought they can see everything you can see, apart from lenders names, soft searches and quotation searches.

I presume they can see the following

1. Credit card limit
2. Credit card balance
3. Account start date
4. Any missed payments on accounts
5. Electoral Roll/previous addresses

Also, of course; any CCJs, defaults and bankruptcies

a4a

This is subject to a whole lot of debate.

The only fact we know for sure, is that no-one on here actually knows.

CRA's will tell you one thing, and there are certain people on here who believe them and certain people who don't, so don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Without wanting to slant you either way, my only comment would be, is that lenders and CRA's are all on the other side of the fence to us and work together for a common goal, which is to make money for themselves from consumers such as us.

Edi81

This is an interesting link on the Experian website. http://www.experian.co.uk/consumer-information/what-is-cais.html

As a credit underwriter in a previous life where Experian was used I can confirm that this is exactly the information we would see. This was the information that fed our internal scoring models which are used by lenders in assessing risk.

aduk85

MrSilk wrote: »

I've always thought they can see everything you can see, apart from lenders names, soft searches and quotation searches.

I presume they can see the following

1. Credit card limit
2. Credit card balance
3. Account start date
4. Any missed payments on accounts
5. Electoral Roll/previous addresses

Also, of course; any CCJs, defaults and bankruptcies

After applying for a mortgage in 2012, they can see the following information as the lady told me on the telephone

1. Credit limits
2. Current owing balance
3. Start date
4. Payment amounts
5. Any missed payments
6. if the payment is promotional rate or not (e.g balance transfer card)
7. Who you bank with
8. How many current accounts you have, their overdraft limits and how the account has been run
9. Any CCJs, Cifas, Gain, etc
10. All of your closed accounts (upto 6 years)
11. Anyone you are financially associated with, and their details including credit history

The credit score the credit reference agencies give you is only indicative, as every lender will input the details provided to them from the agencies into their own systems. They all have different levels of stress testing to see if you can afford what you are saying you can.


If you can you will be accepted.


My advice is to close anything down you don't really need or want and then apply once they are settled.


E.g multiple credit card accounts but you only use one or two, this shows you as less risk as you cannot access more finance should you decide to.


Hope this helps.

InsideInsurance

adindas wrote: »

Could they get it by for instance add more subscription and pay premium price.
- This might include Credit score from CRAs

This they can do but realistically wouldnt. Why pay for Experians credit score when you've spent millions and have an army of experts creating and refining your own?

A few insurance companies, on the other hand, who dont have anywhere near the expertise on credit do buy the credit score (but not the rest of the data) and/ or the ID validation service

GingerBob_3

a4a wrote: »

This is subject to a whole lot of debate.

The only fact we know for sure, is that no-one on here actually knows.

CRA's will tell you one thing, and there are certain people on here who believe them and certain people who don't, so don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Without wanting to slant you either way, my only comment would be, is that lenders and CRA's are all on the other side of the fence to us and work together for a common goal, which is to make money for themselves from consumers such as us.

Correct. The so-called experts here don't know. We get conflicting views of what lenders actually see. I'm still waiting to see an image of a typical report available to the differing types of CRA customer; lender, debt collector, insurance company, government etc. I requested this in a separate thread; so far nothing has been forthcoming.

Just assume the CRA customer gets to see a vast amount of your personal financial information.

Thrugelmir

GingerBob wrote: »

I'm still waiting to see an image of a typical report available to the differing types of CRA customer;

Probably because there's no such thing. The CRA's will create whatever their customers want from the data they they hold.

GingerBob_3

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Probably because there's no such thing. The CRA's will create whatever their customers want from the data they they hold.

Yes, I thought that as well. They'll provide whatever data they have, as long as their customers pay for it. Still, those customers obviously obtain some viewable output. I wonder what it typically looks like? No one seems to know.

stclair

a4a wrote: »

This is subject to a whole lot of debate.

The only fact we know for sure, is that no-one on here actually knows.

CRA's will tell you one thing, and there are certain people on here who believe them and certain people who don't, so don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Without wanting to slant you either way, my only comment would be, is that lenders and CRA's are all on the other side of the fence to us and work together for a common goal, which is to make money for themselves from consumers such as us.

I use credit reference information at work and we see the following information:

* Electoral Roll (Everyone registered at address)
*Aliases and Associations
* Address Links
* BT OSIS Telephone File
* Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) Possessions Register
* Previous credit searches (CAPS)
* Credit Account Information Sharing (CAIS)
*CCJs and other public information
*Gone Away Information Network (GAIN)
*CIFAS

The CAIS consists of:

•The lender, e.g. type of company (bank, retailer)
• The borrower, e.g. full name, full address
• The credit account (as appropriate)
• Type of account (loan, mortgage, etc.)
• Start and closure dates
• Default date
• Current balance outstanding
• Repayment amount and term
• Credit limit
• History of payment over the last 36 months
• Special circumstances (gone aways, deceased, etc.)
• Date of the last CAIS update.

When the CAPS is viewed is just shown as an amount for example:

3 = Within last 0-3 months
1 = Within last 3-6 months
0 = within last 6-9 months
1 = Within last 9-12 months

a4a

GingerBob wrote: »

Correct. The so-called experts here don't know. We get conflicting views of what lenders actually see. I'm still waiting to see an image of a typical report available to the differing types of CRA customer; lender, debt collector, insurance company, government etc. I requested this in a separate thread; so far nothing has been forthcoming.

Just assume the CRA customer gets to see a vast amount of your personal financial information.

"The so called expert here", yep there are lots of them. The type who know it all because they have read it somewhere so it has to be correct.

Anyway, truth is, no-one knows as stated but the only thing we can all remember is that the CRA's and the lenders are all in it together and all profit from consumers, so chances are, they all share and swop all information for each others benefit (not ours).