Swapping energy supplier affect my credit rating

TOPSie

I was seeking a new credit card to do a bit of balance transfer. Here on MSE it said I had a 90% chance of acceptance. But when I applied (to AA) I got rejected.
I checked my credit rating with ClearScore and was told my rating was “impressively high” with no red crosses or other bad marks.
I got a letter from AA telling me that they had refused me, but no indication as to why. They said they used Experian, so I signed up for their “free trial” (and set a reminder to cancel before the 30 days)
Again the score was fair (nearly good). But this time there were two red marks. The first was because I have a high non-mortgage credit balance (that’s why I wanted a balance transfer option).
But the other red mark was because I had “opened 3 new credit accounts in the last 6 months”
This was news to me – until I drilled down and found that two of these were with British Gas. I had swopped supplier as recommended by the MSE alerting system and for some reason best known to British Gas they had changed my account details to suit their systems, making it look like a (second) new agreement. The other new account was a mobile phone account which was created when my current contract expired – seems that this also is a “new” credit account even though I continued with my existing supplier on the same deal (just got a new handset).
Of course there are possibly other factors at play which they won’t reveal. I have a nagging doubt that one of them is age – I am 67 – still in full time employment, because I can’t afford to retire (high non-mortgage credit balance !!!). But they won’t admit that.
However the point of this post is to see why the prudent who “switch” get red marks on their credit score for their prudence?????

HappyMJ

You do not get "red" marks for switching suppliers regularly.

You get "red" marks for not paying the bill.

The problem is probably affordability.

They will most probably base the decision on your retirement income rather than your PAYE income.

[Deleted User]

TOPSie wrote: »

However the point of this post is to see why the prudent who “switch” get red marks on their credit score for their prudence?????

The worst that will happen is that Experian won't give you a loan.

Which is ok, because Experian don't give loans.

TOPSie

HappyMJ wrote: »

You do not get "red" marks for switching suppliers regularly.


You get "red" marks for not paying the bill.


The problem is probably affordability.

They will most probably base the decision on your retirement income rather than your PAYE income.

Well the marks were red (exclamation mark in red triangle)and the reason stated was setting up new credit agreements

Never missed a payment - EVER

TOPSie

Deleted_User wrote: »

The worst that will happen is that Experian won't give you a loan.

Which is ok, because Experian don't give loans.

No but loan companies give loans based on Experian reports!!!

[Deleted User]

Yes - the data in the reports, not the scores or the red marks.

GingerBob_3

One thing is for sure, the data supplied by BG and phone provider will not be helpful to you.


If you change supplier again, at least for energy you could use a company that doesn't hit you with data that some real credit providers won't like the look of. EDF don't use credit reporting as a blackmailing tool like most other suppliers do, so you could consider them.