Credit rating - shocked!

davy_fulla

I've just decided to use the free-trial period with Experian to have a look at my credit score. It says my crdit score is 712 on a scale of 1-1000 with a high score being better. I would have thought that would make 712 a decent score but it has put me in the category of 'Poor'.

I really can't understand this. At the moment I pay a mortgage, mobile phone, have 2 credit cards and a loan and have never missed a payment on anything for over 4 years. Granted I did miss quite a few payments before then but have sorted my finances out since.

Yesterday I did make 3 calls to various loan companies to look a getting a £3000 loan for home improvements - will this have lowered my credit score overnight?

The main reason I decided to try this out was that my credit card was due to be paid yesterday but I simply forgot about it. I was straight on the phone today to make a payment - am I likely to be hammered for that bearing in mind my perfect repayment history for 4 years?

MrsTinks

One missed payment won't matter a lot - but several 4 years ago will still show I think. Are you registered on the electoral roll where you live?
Do you have any financial links to anyone that might affect it, have you applied for several financial products in the last 3 months? Do you have a lot of available debt? These are all factors. But ultimately the score... is fiction Different lenders have different criteria - some won't lend to you if you haven't been on the electorate roll for at least 4 years, some will turn you down if you have more than x amount of available credit (get any old cards that are unused closed!)
And if in doubt then call Experian - they're nice and will try and explain to you why it's scored how it has

T

dylansmum

Hi
I am bamboozled, too. I checked all three credit agencies and got this:

Callcredit - 960
Equifax - 890
Experian - 596!!

Have you checked the others as well for a comparison? BTW I have never had credit problems.

CLAPTON

forget about your credit score ... what do your credit files actually say?

MrsTinks

As for different agencies giving different scores... it's because some banks/cc's/so on share information with some but not always all agencies. Like Lloyds were notoriously bad at sharing info with experian, but shared with Equifax - hence my really good credit history didn't exsist as it was all Lloyds until I left them. 6 years including a mortgage of perfect repayments, small loans, over drafts, perfect repayment, never missed a payment and when I left I found to my dismay that according to Experian I'd never held a single penny of credit and so was starting from scratch building it up...
Check the physical info on all the reports and DON'T take any notice of the actual "score"...

dylansmum

Sorry - don't want to hijack this thread but hope it is okay to add:

Huge thanks Tine. I'll check direct with Experian - I looked at mine via checkmyfile and Experian had no data (or it said no data to view) yet I know, in the past (using the Experian free trial) Experian had all my info (last year).

To teh Op - did you check your full records with them?

davy_fulla

tine wrote: »

As for different agencies giving different scores... it's because some banks/cc's/so on share information with some but not always all agencies. Like Lloyds were notoriously bad at sharing info with experian, but shared with Equifax - hence my really good credit history didn't exsist as it was all Lloyds until I left them. 6 years including a mortgage of perfect repayments, small loans, over drafts, perfect repayment, never missed a payment and when I left I found to my dismay that according to Experian I'd never held a single penny of credit and so was starting from scratch building it up...
Check the physical info on all the reports and DON'T take any notice of the actual "score"...

Thanks for the info (others who have replied as well). My Experian report gives no mention of my loan or bank account with LloydsTSB so that would explain that. On my report everything is in green, i.e. all payments up to date. There's 4 or 5 searches gone in over the past month as I've been trying to weigh up the cheapest loan option. I think it's crazy that you get penalised just for trying to shop around - but such is life! I'm devastated about making that late credit card payment yesterday so I just hope it doesn't have too much of a bearing on things.

As people have pointed out they have a varying score with different agencies I'll not worry too much about my score. Cheers all.

Dr_Hook

Credit agency scores are only meant as an indicator and aren't really worth the (electronic) paper they're written on. Lenders calculate their own scores based on credit file (and other personal) data and their own criteria.

Like Clapton & tine said, forget the score and concentrate on the actual information.

I've been rated as having an excellent credit rating by more than one CRA, but have also been declined credit recently. Apparently I'm over-exposed :shocked: :rotfl: