£17 to add my main current account to my credit report. Worth it?

LewMacKenzie

I'm currently trying to improve my credit worthiness, and I've been using Clearscore and Credit Club to monitor changes to my credit score and reports. In doing so, it's become clear that my main current account is not visible to credit reporting agencies. This is the account my wages are paid into and which all my bills come out of and it's the one I've held the longest (around 18 years). It's a Bank of Scotland/Halifax account, and it transpires that because it was opened before 2003, the T&C's prevent credit rating agencies from seeing it.

I was concerned that this might negatively impact my credit score, so phoned the bank to see if they could change it, however they say that it can't be done manually. Rather, I would have to upgrade my account temporarily, which would refresh the conditions, after which I could switch back to the account I have now. The only issue is that I will have to pay a full month's fees for the upgraded account (£17) even if I switch back after only a day or two.

So my question is: is it likely to be worth my while to pay the £17 to get my main account listed on my credit reports? I know 17 quid is not exactly a king's ransom, but I'd sooner not pay it if it's not going to do anything to improve my report. I don't really have any idea what impact your current account has on your report so if anyone understands how all this work and can give me any advice, I'd be really grateful!

Many, many advance-thanks for your help!

Lewis

PS I'm new to this forum, so... hello! :beer:

DCFC79

LewMacKenzie wrote: »

I'm currently trying to improve my credit worthiness, and I've been using Clearscore and Credit Club to monitor changes to my credit score and reports. In doing so, it's become clear that my main current account is not visible to credit reporting agencies. This is the account my wages are paid into and which all my bills come out of and it's the one I've held the longest (around 18 years). It's a Bank of Scotland/Halifax account, and it transpires that because it was opened before 2003, the T&C's prevent credit rating agencies from seeing it.

I was concerned that this might negatively impact my credit score, so phoned the bank to see if they could change it, however they say that it can't be done manually. Rather, I would have to upgrade my account temporarily, which would refresh the conditions, after which I could switch back to the account I have now. The only issue is that I will have to pay a full month's fees for the upgraded account (£17) even if I switch back after only a day or two.

So my question is: is it likely to be worth my while to pay the £17 to get my main account listed on my credit reports? I know 17 quid is not exactly a king's ransom, but I'd sooner not pay it if it's not going to do anything to improve my report. I don't really have any idea what impact your current account has on your report so if anyone understands how all this work and can give me any advice, I'd be really grateful!

Many, many advance-thanks for your help!

Lewis

PS I'm new to this forum, so... hello! :beer:

Can I be first to say welcome to mse.

Secondly your credit score is not I repeat isn't seen by anyone but you, the data/credit history is whats important.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/creditclub

That gets you the mse link and it explains credit score, well the 1 from credit club he explains.

Thirdly there's a third agency to check, Call credit, can use Noddle to check it.

Fourth which are these t&cs you refer to, the banks or credit agency ?

My RBS [STRIKE](same group as BoS)[/STRIKE] account has been opened before 2003 and its on 1 or more of my reports from the agencies. I wouldnt pay the money myself, sounds like the person you spoke to was trying to get you to sign up and they get a bonus.

A credit card can help if you dont currently have 1.

ciderboy2009

Hi Lewis & welcome to the forum.

First things first, as I'm sure everyone here will tell you, ignore the credit scores you get from the credit reference agencies as they're meaningless.

Loan providers will have their own way of assessing your credit worthiness which won't involve these meaningless figures which might just as well be plucked out of thin air.

As an example of how meaningless they are - I recently paid off a £15k loan. My scores dropped dramatically with all 3 of the main agencies!

Anyway, I personally wouldn't pay anything to get a bank account onto my record - none of my accounts are on mine & I've never had any problems with getting credit when needed.

forgotmyname

Opened my Halifax account in the 90's and it shows on my credit file. I had a BOS account at the time also, im sure it was mentioned because they paid someone elses bills inc (poll tax? or was it the council tax at that point?) with my wages. Took a while to sort hence opening the Halifax account.

sourcrates

LewMacKenzie wrote: »

So my question is: is it likely to be worth my while to pay the £17 to get my main account listed on my credit reports? I know 17 quid is not exactly a king's ransom, but I'd sooner not pay it if it's not going to do anything to improve my report. I don't really have any idea what impact your current account has on your report so if anyone understands how all this work and can give me any advice, I'd be really grateful!

Many, many advance-thanks for your help!

Lewis

PS I'm new to this forum, so... hello! :beer:

Hi :wave:


You do not need to pay for any "extras" in order to improve your credit file, most people get on just fine, so to be honest its wasted money.


You don't need to be quite so obsessed with credit scores and the like, or pay to view your report, i use Noddle, as its free.

badmemory

You really shouldn't worry about this or pay for an unnecessary "upgrade". If you had managed your account badly it would show. So just check there is nothing bad on all 3 CRAs & then move on. I will just repeat what has already been said - do not pay. They are a business whose whole purpose is to get us to pay for something we can get free. It's a bit like paying Sky just to watch BBC when you have already paid for the license.

LewMacKenzie

Thanks for all the replies folks, I think I'll just leave it as it stands.

Someone asked which T&C's were preventing the agencies from seeing the account. It's the bank account T&C's - hence the need to briefly upgrade the account so the the terms refresh when I change back. This refresh cannot be carried out manually, they say.

I haven't paid to look at my credit score, btw - I use clear score and credit club, which are both free, and I have also looked at Noddle, although that didn't seem to provide as much detail as the other two.

DCFC79

LewMacKenzie wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies folks, I think I'll just leave it as it stands.

Someone asked which T&C's were preventing the agencies from seeing the account. It's the bank account T&C's - hence the need to briefly upgrade the account so the the terms refresh when I change back. This refresh cannot be carried out manually, they say.

Not sure if that's a load of codswollop. or not.

boo_star

DCFC79 wrote: »

My RBS (same group as BoS) account has been opened before 2003 and its on 1 or more of my reports from the agencies. I wouldnt pay the money myself, sounds like the person you spoke to was trying to get you to sign up and they get a bonus..

RBS is NOT the same group as BoS.

DCFC79

boo_star wrote: »

RBS is NOT the same group as BoS.

Thanks for that

slapmatt

GDPR allows for the right to rectification. This means that if the information that a company hold about you is inaccurate or out of date, you have a right to ask them to correct it.

Therefore, demand they add this information within 30 days otherwise you'll report them to the ICO.