How To Interpret My Credit Reports?

TCA

In advance of starting down the mortgage application path, I signed up for the free 30-day trials of Experian, Equifax and Callcredit. The latter two are via the checkmyfile.com website.

Overall, the results look reasonable but wondering if anyone can give me a steer as to just how reasonable and whether any remedial action is required.

Experian - a score of 947 out of 999. Rated good and only 14 points away from an excellent score. I have 4 positive score factors and 1 negative, which is "no settled non-mail order credit accounts", which I can do nothing about and probably wouldn't want to. I supplied 2 addresses which were duly recognised for electoral roll, although there is a gap between the two during which I stayed elsewhere in the UK and also overseas. The missing UK (rented) addresses are from 2004 and 2006/7, so is there any point in submitting them or better to do nothing given the overall score is pretty good? And maybe the chance I'd be associated incorrectly with something adverse?

Equifax/Callcredit - both score 789 out of 1,000 (3 out of 5 stars) for data seen by lenders, with the average score being 680-760. It's 885 and 898 using data seen by "Others" (4 out of 5 stars), 800 for the postcode score (which seems rarely used) and only 712 (2 out of 5 stars) for application score. So the main concern from that lot is probably the application score. Any thoughts on that and the other scores? Again there are 4 positive attributes, but this time no negative attributes.

According to Experian, the average age of my credit accounts is 160 months. Neither Experian nor Equifax/Callcredit reports appear to include credit cards though. Is this normal? All of them use my two current accounts only. My credit card has been used constantly in the past two years, having had it for nearly 25 years, but has always been paid off every month. Are credit cards completely disregarded?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

benjus

Ignore the scores, they mean nothing - lenders have their own criteria.

As long as your file is associated with the correct address and you're on the electoral register it's fine - I wouldn't worry about addresses from 7 years ago.

The main thing is not having any late payment or default markers on the report.

Seems odd that your credit cards aren't showing up - they probably should be. That's something worth looking into. Which bank issued the credit card(s).

Malmo

You do not have a universal or central rating/score as a UK individual, so the Experian (and Equifax & Callcredit / Noddle) "ratings" & "scores" are not indicative of anything that lenders will see and use. Each lender assesses & scores applicants against their own criteria & scorecard to establish whether or not the applicant fits their target customer profile. So the scores that you refer to are not meaningful and should be ignored.

A statutory report costing £2 from each agency is sufficient and reports the same information as a subscription report.

See links below to each agency's statutory report.

Experian Statutory Report

Equifax Statutory Report

Callcredit Statutory Report AKA Noddle

Best to have a read of this MSE article first for general tips.

Credit card accounts should appear if the lenders choose to report them.

Addresses beyond the last 6 years will not be of any use.

kingstreet

There's actually nothing posted there of any use, OP.

You need to go through the actual data like a lender and look for;-

late payments
missed payments
defaults
arrangement to pay markers
court judgments
IVAs
bankruptcies.

If you have none of the above visible on any of your three credit files, you have nothing to worry about credit history-wise.

Millymoomoo

Hi all, I have just checked my noddle report and it says I have a rating of 1/5 I only have 2 defaults on there and one is due of this December, everything else has green ticks against it, how come my score is so low

Thanks in advance

kingstreet

The two defaults?

As reported, the scores are worthless, so ignore.

Millymoomoo

Thanks kingstreet, however I've seem people posting that they have higher credit scores with more defaults and CCJs, how then can I increase my credit score as I am being turned down for finance. I am at a loss to know when it is gonna change

[Deleted User]

Millymoomoo wrote: »

however I've seem people posting that they have higher credit scores with more defaults and CCJs,

That's exactly why they're worthless and should be ignored.

kingstreet

Millymoomoo wrote: »

Thanks kingstreet, however I've seem people posting that they have higher credit scores with more defaults and CCJs, how then can I increase my credit score as I am being turned down for finance. I am at a loss to know when it is gonna change

When the adverse credit falls off your credit file, six years from the date it was registered.

Your problem is the adverse data; the cause. Not the credit score; the symptom.

TCA

benjus wrote: »

Seems odd that your credit cards aren't showing up - they probably should be. That's something worth looking into. Which bank issued the credit card(s).

Malmo wrote: »

Credit card accounts should appear if the lenders choose to report them.

Thanks to all for the replies. I have one RBS credit card. It would seem odd if it's the case that RBS don't report them. The checkmyfile website states:

"Your balance and/or any credit limit over time, as reported to Callcredit, are charted below. Equifax and Experian do not provide this information in their credit reports"

But there's nothing there at all. Under "Credit History" it shows my two current accounts, and then there's another heading "Information Suppressed" under which there are "No Credit Accounts".

kingstreet wrote: »

You need to go through the actual data like a lender and look for;-

late payments
missed payments
defaults
arrangement to pay markers
court judgments
IVAs
bankruptcies.

If you have none of the above visible on any of your three credit files, you have nothing to worry about credit history-wise.

I've got none of the above thankfully but I'd have thought my credit card would be a material addition to my credit history and an indicator as to how I handle credit.

kingstreet

Obtain your statutory files from the CRAs concerned, rather than relying on Check My File (CMF).

FWIW CMF gets no account data from Experian (see T&C) so it may be visible on your Experian statutory file but CMF won't report it as they don't have access to it.