What exactly do lenders see when searching for credit?

Jlawson118

I've posted numerous threads on here out of curiosity regarding my credit score and the way it works and most people advice not to worry about it as lenders see different things.

So my score has dropped these past few months due a few credit applications, due to a few changes I've made, new credit card, new phone contract etc, and that is what is knocked it down so much. And when I've just decided to open a student account for my second year at university, another search has gone on there today.

Anyway, if we're not to worry about credit scores and everything, then what do lenders actually see? So for example, NatWest ran a hard search on me today, exactly what would they have seen?

sourcrates

Exactly what you see when you look at your report.

However the computer analysis of your report takes just seconds, there system will have a minimum acceptance criteria programmed into it, a system called "credit scoring" which they match against your profile, and if your the type of borrower they are looking for, then you will be accepted, if you don't match there lending criteria, it will reject you.

It's that simple.

There are some companies that prefer to physically check your file, but they all use a similar credit scoring technique.

YorkshireBoy

They can also see CATO, CII, Delphi predictive scorecards, and other information the CRAs hold. Of course this is only if they abide by the SCOR's principles of reciprocity.

Get googling.

Anthorn

Jlawson118 wrote: »

I've posted numerous threads on here out of curiosity regarding my credit score and the way it works and most people advice not to worry about it as lenders see different things.

So my score has dropped these past few months due a few credit applications, due to a few changes I've made, new credit card, new phone contract etc, and that is what is knocked it down so much. And when I've just decided to open a student account for my second year at university, another search has gone on there today.

Anyway, if we're not to worry about credit scores and everything, then what do lenders actually see? So for example, NatWest ran a hard search on me today, exactly what would they have seen?

Lenders see the same as you see except the name of lenders mainly because the name of the lender, card, etc. is meaningless. Useful when viewing our own credit report though so we can identify accounts.

Credit scores are not exactly meaningless. It's a generalisation which may or may not apply to a particular lender. But the score is a good guide to what we might expect from a lender.

We do tend to generalise anyway: We might say that 6 credit searches in 6 months is bad because it makes us look desperate for credit. Or if we make only the minimum payment it looks bad. Or if we take a cash advance it looks bad. But we cannot generalise in that way because one lender is not the same as another and what we say is bad could be good: Consider the case where a lender is looking for customers who are always paying interest so that lender can make a fat profit. In that case only making the minimum payment could be good and help us to obtain credit.

Overall we play a game but we don't know what the rules are because those rules come from more than one source, the lenders, each of which may be different because they may have different criteria and may score differently.

GingerBob_3

We don't really know. In the black art of credit reporting it is alleged that searchers don't see the merchant's name attached to individual records, but guess what, some searchers do! (though these are not normally credit-related searches). As pointed out above, the searchers sometimes have access to a whole raft of other information about you from the CRAs. Information you don't get to see unless you hit the CRAs with a Subject Access Request.


And when insurance companies carry out a so-called soft search - what do they get to see - if they manually inspect the return?


And if a betting company carries out a so-called money laundering search, what precisely do they get to see?


And if some other institution data rapes you for an identification search - what do they get to see?


If your local council suspects you of trying to get your children into a school outside your catchment area - what do they get to see? Yes, incredible as it may sound, those chumps down at the council get to see the CRAs' detailed financial assessments about you.


So lots of unanswered questions. I wonder if Experian will put up some example outputs related to the above questions? :rotfl: