Credit rating plummets

danandgeorgie

Hi All

I wonder if anyone can help me. My credit rating went from 997 to 571 in a day - why?

Last year, following reading this site I took a Creation Credit Card with £4K limit. I wanted it for using on holiday abroad. I used it in June in France and when I got home paid the balance in full. It worked brilliantly. I September I went to Kos, Greece. Again I used the card and paid the account balance on the website upon return. I was now waiting for the next trip. In January I got an email from Creation saying that I owed £5.67. I phoned to query. I was told that after I had paid the bill in September they had applied a daily interest charge on 2 days of a 50 Euro cash withdrawal on the penultimate day of then holiday. Because the bill was less than £5.00 they did not tel me.

As a result, according to Creation's rules I "missed 2 payments and they then reported this to the Credit Reference Agencies. Since then I checked and my rating had been devastated for 997 to 571. Another creditor contacted me out of the blue to say they had reviewed my credit limited and they have reduced it by more than 25% so that I am now only just in dredit with them.

I complained to Creation who said they were sympathetic but would do nothing to put this right. They were not interested in the fact that they didn't contact me until the bill rose above £5 as that is their stated policy. I immediately closed the account. What can I do to repair they damage? I am now a financial pariah over less than £5. I feel deeply aggrieved but do I have any rights?

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

Dan

[Deleted User]

Maybe the wind changed direction.

Seriously ignore it. You don't have a credit rating or a score. It's made up.

Regarding the issue with Creation - if it's in the T's and C's then nothing can be done.

Ben8282

As useless as credit scores may be, for this to happen something adverse must have appeared in your credit files. Forget the drop in score but concentrate on the adverse information that has appeared on the report.
What happened is of course entirely your own fault by failing to check your statements. However, if 2 isolated late payments for very small amounts is really all that is adverse on your report and your other accounts are all fine and well managed, then I wouldn't worry too much.
Also, I don't quite understand where the amount of £5.67 comes from. It is far too much to represent 2 days interest on 50 Euros which should be something like 5p but far too little to represent whatever that interest was with a late payment charge added on.

bazzyb

Your credit score didn't drop in a day, it got gradually worse each month until January. Your credit score is largely meaningless as lenders look at your credit history.

Your credit file will now show that you were 4(?) payments down on the credit card in January (Oct-Jan) payments. Although you have now resolved the issue, this will show on your file for 6 years. If your credit history is otherwise good then this will have less of an impact after 2-3 years generally, depending on the lenders' criteria.

If you want to see the impact then get a copy of your credit report and look at the entry against the credit card - ignore the 'score' number.

Superscrooge

Dan,

You look more risky to lenders as you have two recent missed payments on your credit file, which creates the impression you might be in financial difficulty. That is why your credit limit has been reduced.

It is because these missed payments are so recent that they are having such a large effect. As long as there are no more missed payments and everything else on your credit file is in order, these missed payments will become less relevant as time passes and in a few months your credit file will start to look better again.

Consider setting up a DD to avoid any possibility of missed payments

DCFC79

You missed 2 payments ?

Why is a direct debot not setup ?

If yourr not using a direct debit because of your finances then is a credit card for you.

danandgeorgie

yeah all my other stuff is on DD but this card was never meant to be paid in full and only used a few times a year so I didn't think I needed it.- you live and learn!