Is it ok to be setting up accounts with CRAs again and again

Fred_Lewis

Hi Guys,



When I first noticed the low credit score I have etc, I was advised to setup an acount with xperian. Then, my financial advisor got me to setup equifax because he told me that sometimes not all/the same information is shown on both so I got that as well. I have recently got a card that gives access to Moodle, which again is another provider. With this card the moodle is a sort of "premium" type of account becausue of the type of card that it is, specfically for rebuilding credit. I just fear however that all these "searches" in my name don't actually do my credit any good.

Should I go ahead and set one up or continue to just view clearscore which is what I have been using up-until now.

[Deleted User]

Looking at your own credit file doesn't have any impact.

However, just use Clearscore, MSE Credit club and Noddle. Remember just to look at the data, never the scores.

Never heard of Moodle though. Are you sure you haven't just made that up?

PRAISETHESUN

You are correct in saying that not all lenders report to all CRAs, so the information on your files with Experian, Equifax and TransUnion (formerly CallCredit) will all be different. It helps to keep on top of all three as most lenders will use a different CRA for their searches, so I would definitely recommend getting access to all three.

You can access your reports for free using the MSE Credit club (Experian), Noddle (TransUnion) and ClearScore (Equifax). I think you might be confusing "Moodle" for Noddle, but I could be wrong. I have access to a premium version of Noddle through my Tesco Foundation card, but its basically the free version with some "alert" feature that is usually about a week late anyway whenever my credit report changes. You don't need the paid versions IMO, but if you get them for free then why not use them?

As long as you are only making "soft" searches (also called quotation searches) then they will not affect your credit history - ignore the scores as they are useless, every lender generates their own internal score from the contents on your credit file so only your credit HISTORY matters. Identity searches from setting all these services up will all be soft searches, so there is nothing to worry about here in terms of trashing your credit file. Get the services set up and then monitor your reports every month for changes - if you are managing your credit card responsibly then you should see improvements to your limit and be able to get better credit in the future.

Fred_Lewis

Yes Guys I am sorry I pressed the wrong key on the keyboard. I meant to say Noddle. I currently only use ClearScore, but I have in the past gotten a full Experian report via their 30 day free trial. I would however appriciate more the Experian report over the others, though I guess, ultemetely, the information they show is similar.

[Deleted User]

Fred_Lewis wrote: »

but I have in the past gotten a full Experian report via their 30 day free trial.

You can getten your Experian report via MSE Credit Club.

Don't assume the data is similar.

molerat

Equifax data is also available from Creditwise, part of Capital One, which I find a more user friendly format than Clearscore. Only the MSE/Experian and Noddle/CallCredit provided reports are available to download / print though.

PRAISETHESUN

I feel I should stress the importance for getting reports from all three CRAs as I mentioned above. The information they show is quite similar, yes, but since not every lender reports to all three CRAs then some reports will have different information.

If hypothetically you had an issue with one lender reporting missed payments, once it was sorted you would want to make sure they weren't continuing to report the issue. If they were reporting to a CRA that you weren't checking, then you would never know. Same would go for if any identity fraud were to occur for an account that was only reported to a CRA whose reports you weren't checking.

You can access your reports for free using the MSE Credit club (Experian), Noddle (TransUnion) and ClearScore (Equifax). You can also request statutory credit reports individually from the CRAs under GDPR laws for free, but you have to remember to do this every month, whilst these services update automatically every month

Willing2Learn

molerat wrote: »

Equifax data is also available from Creditwise, part of Capital One, which I find a more user friendly format than Clearscore. Only the MSE/Experian and Noddle/CallCredit provided reports are available to download / print though.

@OP

You can download or print your Experian file, for free, by asking for an online statutory report.
https://www.equifax.co.uk/Products/credit/statutory-report.html