Wife with no credit rating

homelyn

Hi
we have been married for 40 years and I usually do the banks, credit cards, bills etc, because of this my wife appears to not have any credit rating as we recently tried to take out a credit card in her name.

We have shared bills, etc as she has income as i do too

So, the question is - is there any way the credit ratings companies can give her rating based on our joint payments over the last 40 years?

If so who do I approach and how do I do this please?

Thanks for looking

Eric

[Deleted User]

Your wife can only have a credit history made up of accounts in her name.

The only people who will give her a rating are lenders, but you don't see those. You need to start by seeing if she exists at the CRAs.

Have you checked her three files?

homelyn

Hi, thanks for the prompt reply, what are her three files p-ls.

We have always held joint accounts for both of us, my rating is very good, hers non existent

I have tried Experian to no avail.

Thanks

eric

[Deleted User]

Your rating is non-existent as well, as the scores and ratings are made up.

The 3 files are Equifax, Experian and Call Credit.

All can be obtained for free from:

Equifax - Clearscore
Experian - MSE Credit Club
Call Credit - Noddle

[Deleted User]

Clearscore, Noddle and MSE credit club will let you check Equifax, Call Credit and Experian.

You don't have a rating and neither does your wife. You only have credit history, which is seen and used by lenders in making decisions.

Any CRA credit rating is just generated by a quick shake of a magic 8 ball.

homelyn

I see I should be asking about credit history not rating?

She has spent thousands over the 40 year history, but because i was the main holder none of this can be attributed to her I presume?

Cheers

eric

Candyapple

homelyn wrote: »

I see I should be asking about credit history not rating?

Yes.

homelyn wrote: »

She has spent thousands over the 40 year history, but because i was the main holder none of this can be attributed to her I presume?

Correct.

If you hold a joint bank account or mortgage together, these should appear on your wife's files.

Does she have her own bank account? What about mobile phone contract? Is she on the electoral roll and does it show on all 3 agencies?

homelyn

joint bank accounts - yes
no mobile PAYG
Electoral roll - yes

Ben8282

I am curious as to why after 40+ years of never having had any credit in her own name your wife suddenly wants to apply for her own credit card?
The joint bank accounts, assuming they are reported, should be appearing on both your credit files and hers. If they are on your files there should be an identical entry on her files.
What actually happened when you applied for the card for her? Presumably it was declined. Who told you that this was due to the reason that you have mentioned.
Perhaps the best idea would be for your wife to apply for a card to the bank where you have your main joint current account.

GlasweJen

This is the situation I was in, having come from a religion where borrowing was frowned upon I'd never borrowed in my life prior to setting up Home with my partner and I'm really struggling.

Currently my Experian "score" is 999, Equifax is 330 and callcredit is 550. I've never had a CCJ, or a default or any issues like that but I'd also never had a credit card until I was 26 and then the only lender willing to give me one was Aqua at 39.9%. Now I have the aqua card and capital one card. I also have a next account and that's as far as I've got, I couldn't go on the mortgage as my history was so sparse we would have been rejected by Santander, my own bank won't give me an overdraft of more than £400. It's very frustrating.

All you can do is use one of the card comparison sites to check and see if your wife will have a high chance of getting a credit card before she applies (don't apply if the probability is low), pay the card off in full every month (though to get a credit increase I did switch to min payments only for three months and that did work) and plug away at any advice the credit reference tools give you.

[Deleted User]

Your rejection further proves that the credit ratings and scores are made up and are not to be taken as gospel in any way, shape or form