New rating criteria

Debtfreebill

Hi all,
Ok, so recently Experian worked their system culminating in different rating scores. So, the effect this had on me as follows;
Had been cleaning up my credit value for two years and by August last year my score was 968 out of 999. Fantastic, as I was looking to change my car, loan co's started to look favourably at me. Then, Experian changed their scoring. Inexplicably, my score went from 968 to 376. No further credit actions on my file but loan co's now won't go anywhere near me and those that do want silly APR's.
So, my question is this, if the ratings and scores mean nothing, why am I now being penalised again?

[Deleted User]

Because as you've pointed out, they mean nothing. The information on your credit file is what's important. Have you missed any payments, or have any defaults? Are you on the electoral roll? Have you had credit in the past? Have you looked at all three versions of your credit file and checked them all?

Ebe_Scrooge

Something will have changed on your credit file.


I know people don't always believe it, but lenders DON'T see your score - only you and the CRA can see it.


Lenders will make a judgment based on a number of things, the two main criteria are (a) Credit History - A record of borrowing responsibly, paying on time, making more than just the minimum payments on credit cards, generally giving the impression that you're not struggling financially. And (b) Loan to Debt ratio - as a very rough rule of thumb, it's reckoned that lenders will not lend you more than about 50% of your income (excluding mortgage). Importantly, this means "available" credit, not just actual credit. For instance, let's say you earn 40K. You have a credit card with an available balance of 10K, another with 5K, another with 5K. Irrespective of what you've actually got outstanding, you potentially have access to 20K of credit should you choose to use it. That's already 50% of your salary, so lenders would be reluctant to advance you another loan.


It's not a hard-and-fast rule, but it's a good ball-park figure.


You can do the sums yourself - look at all your available credit ( overdraft, credit cards, store cards, catalogue accounts etc. ) and compare that to your salary.


If there's nothing untoward there, then check your credit reports carefully. Ignore the score, but make sure that all the information is correct.


Hope this helps.

MEM62

The randomly generated numbers that are your 'credit score' cannot be explained because they are exactly that - randomly generated numbers. As you will have read in countless other threads, lenders do not see this 'score' and it has absolutely no impact on you ability to borrow or the rates that are offered to you. Stop paying any attention to it.

As long as the data that is recorded on your credit history has not changed and nothing negative has been recently reported the way that lenders view you will not have changed.