credit rating

lyniced

Not sure where to put this, so sorry if its in the wrong place.

I have recently been refused credit by two card companies. I really can't understand this, as I have healthy bank balance (well its never in the red), credit cards (which I pay regularly and on time) a mortgage (with husband) which we've never defaulted on and never ever had any CCJs. However, my husband set up his business nearly a year ago and is self employed. The company address is also our home address, so could this be the problem? Is there any way of finding out my credit rating?

grumbler

'Loophole to get a free credit rating' article...

Clariman

lyniced wrote:

Not sure where to put this, so sorry if its in the wrong place.

I have recently been refused credit by two card companies. I really can't understand this, as I have healthy bank balance (well its never in the red), credit cards (which I pay regularly and on time) a mortgage (with husband) which we've never defaulted on and never ever had any CCJs. However, my husband set up his business nearly a year ago and is self employed. The company address is also our home address, so could this be the problem? Is there any way of finding out my credit rating?

You do not have one "credit rating" - you have many. Each credit card company and lender uses their own criteria to rate you as a potential borrower, so there is no overall credit rating that applies to you. Each of these lenders base their own credit rating (or scoring) on your credit history. Now your credit history is a set of facts about what debt you have and how you have handled it. This info is maintained by credit reference agencies (CRAs) who provide this information to lenders when they are assessing your applications.

The main to CRAs are https://www.experian.co.uk and https://www.equifax.co.uk

You have a statutory right to get them to send you your credit history (AKA credit file) for £2 and to receive it within 7 days. You will need to search around their site to find this low cost statutory report, because they would rather sell you their tarted up version of the same thing for £10 (or whatever they charge these days).

So what you want is your credit history or credit file. You can then check whether it is accurate or not.

Now - going back to credit rating. There is no single credit rating. However, the CRAs do work out THEIR view of your credit rating and they try to sell that to you on their websites. Remember, this is just their interpretaion and scoring of what is in your credit file, so it will be different to any lenders credit rating of you. However, it might give you an indication of where you stand.

Personally, I would get the credit history stuff to get the facts. I would also call the lender and ak their reason for the rejection. Only they can tell you that - nobody else can.

Clariman