Experian charges

Gaz83

If you want your full report from Experian, including the score, and you've already used their service before, then you'll need to pay £14.99.

It is very transparent that previous customers will be charged £14.99 immediately upon reactivation - it says it right at the top of the link for signing up.

Martin_R

With Experian, for £2, according to their website, all you get is a credit report, not the Experian credit score, which is important if lenders are basing decisions on this

Angry_Bear

Sometimes I think that people here are so familiar with the "credit score is worthless" line that they forget that it isn't actually obvious to newbies.

Basically, the £2 report is your full report. It doesn't show a "credit score", but then again no lender ever sees you credit score. They look at your report (the same as the £2 one) and decide based on that and their own internal rules.

Honestly, the £2 report contains ALL the information a lender will have seen (plus a bit extra). The "Experian credit score" is just something Experian creates based on your report according to their own rules to give you a rough idea of how healthy your credit file looks - nobody else ever sees it.

Martin_R

Gaz83 I understand that the £14.99 charge is transparent, but you should be able to get the credit report and Experian Credit score for £2 as a matter of course

Martin_R

Angry Bear, Thankyou for explains this to me, I will order the £2 one then.

Dobbibill

Martin_R wrote: »

The reason I want to see a full report is because something is obviously wrong, and I need to put it right, or at the very least put notes on the report.
I'm on the ER, have been for the past 40 years, have not moved in 25 years and never miss payments, so something somewhere is amiss.

• Do you have other lines of credit?
• Do you make minimum payments? [They may think you're over comitted]
• Do you pay other credit cards off in full each month? [they may think you are not profitable enough to be one of their customers]
• Do you think that the lender may think you already have enough credit ratio to your income?
• Are you financially linked to someone else who may have missed payments?
• Do you live in an area which is a high risk for fraud?
• Have you ever been a victim of fraud?
• Have you recently changed jobs?
• Have you made any other applications for credit recently? etc etc etc

I'm not expecting you to answer any of the above. This is just an example of the many, many questions lenders will ask themselves before granting anyone credit. It's nothing personal, just a process.

Also just to note, much of the information you put on the application form will not be held/known by CRAs such as place of work, income, length of service, household income [some ask this].

gropinginthedark

Similar situation. Rejected for a £7.50 a month SIM card (Talk Mobile), reason given "Experian credit reference". To cut a long story short, I'm loaded, big house, no mortgage, no loans, £thousands in the bank, rock solid regular income. I called my bank (HSBC where I have a Premier account - only available to high net worth customers) they confirmed that from their perspective I represented no credit-risk. The only conclusion I could make was of possible identity theft.
So I signed up for "free trial" of Experian - perfect score 999 out of a possible maximum of 999. The detailed records confirm that, all credit arrangements (water, energy, phone, cards etc) paid promptly with no arrears ever (and a 30 years history for many of them). It would be impossible to have a better credit record. The record does confirm that the mobile phone company made an enquiry yesterday so they weren't making it up - they must have got a negative from Experian. How could that be?
Maybe I'm being unduly cynical but the only "winner" from this situation is Experian. If I don't cancel my free trial within a month they'll automatically start taking a total rip-off £14.99 per month. Are they operating a scam? Giving a negative report in order to drive people like me to sign up and check in the hope we'll forget to cancel?

[Deleted User]

gropinginthedark wrote: »

- they must have got a negative from Experian. How could that be?

Experian don't 'give a negative'. They provide data about you and the lender makes a decision on that, plus anything else the lender has asked you.

It's about you not meeting the lenders criteria.

Martin_R

Hi Dobbibill,
Here are my answers to your questions ...

Do you have other lines of credit? Yes
Do you make minimum payments? [They may think you're over comitted] Yes
Do you pay other credit cards off in full each month? [they may think you are not profitable enough to be one of their customers] Mostly
Do you think that the lender may think you already have enough credit ratio to your income? If they do, then they must think I earn millions lol
Are you financially linked to someone else who may have missed payments? No
Do you live in an area which is a high risk for fraud? No
Have you ever been a victim of fraud? No
Have you recently changed jobs? No
Have you made any other applications for credit recently? Not in the past 3 years, all were accepted.

Gaz83

gropinginthedark wrote: »

Similar situation. Rejected for a £7.50 a month SIM card (Talk Mobile), reason given "Experian credit reference". To cut a long story short, I'm loaded, big house, no mortgage, no loans, £thousands in the bank, rock solid regular income. I called my bank (HSBC where I have a Premier account - only available to high net worth customers) they confirmed that from their perspective I represented no credit-risk. The only conclusion I could make was of possible identity theft.
So I signed up for "free trial" of Experian - perfect score 999 out of a possible maximum of 999. The detailed records confirm that, all credit arrangements (water, energy, phone, cards etc) paid promptly with no arrears ever (and a 30 years history for many of them). It would be impossible to have a better credit record. The record does confirm that the mobile phone company made an enquiry yesterday so they weren't making it up - they must have got a negative from Experian. How could that be?
Maybe I'm being unduly cynical but the only "winner" from this situation is Experian. If I don't cancel my free trial within a month they'll automatically start taking a total rip-off £14.99 per month. Are they operating a scam? Giving a negative report in order to drive people like me to sign up and check in the hope we'll forget to cancel?

Experian don't give reports, positive or negative. They just provide raw data to lenders. It's the lenders who decide what to do with that data.