Experian...less than helpful?

mbf001

The No-Mans-Land between Experian and MSE

Recently contacted Experian to have them change the incorrect D.O.B. they had recorded for my wife in seven of the thirteen “Financial Associations” part of my online Credit Report.
They did that but for some unknown reason, even though my income and expenditure remains much the same, my “Affordability Score” shot downwards from “Good” to “V. Weak”.

I am very concerned about that unexplained change and have tried to get an explanation from Experian by email. They evaded the question and simply said that I should contact MSE about the matter. As they operate the system that can greatly affect people’s financial lives surely they should be held accountable and directly contactable by phone.

I want to speak to someone directly by phone to explain the situation in detail.
Any advice on how I might resolve this issue?

FOOTNOTE
In my experience Experian seems to be staffed mainly by people who only partially read and misunderstand customer queries...and then give perfunctory, evasive, misleading or inaccurate replies.

Willing2Learn

When you corrected the DOB of your wife did it result in more active financial associations? Maybe that could be the reason why? Maybe the data held by Experian for your wife is bringing your affordability down?

Maybe you could contact the MSE Credit Club with your question...

If you have a problem, or suggestions for how we can improve the tool, you can email us at creditclub@moneysavingexpert.com

mbf001

My "Affordability Score" was "Good" before Experian corrected my wife's DOB.
Nothing else changed (my wife's and my finances remain almost the same other than day-to-day expenditure) so I cannot understand why my "Affordability Score" shot downwards.
I cannot prove anything because only Experian knows its own algorithms BUT it seems that there's a glitch that caused this problem. They seem unwilling to look at this issue in any detail or to explain anything at all. Organisations with their power should be directly accountable and willing to assist in such matters.

BoGoF

Not sure why you would pay any attention to this tbh. Anything other than the actual data on your file is a gimmick.

mbf001

Thank you BoGof.

How do you know that though? My ranking changed overnight so something must have influenced it. Unless it is simply down to some perfunctory, unsupportable input by a keyboard operator the Experian algorithm must be driven by data.

What concerns me is that my previous ranking was "Good" and suddenly without any change of my or my wife's finances it changed to the lowest level. Either my earlier "Good" ranking was incorrect or the most recent low ranking is incorrect. Therefore it is a matter of simple logic that Experian got one of those rankings wrong.

It is also unreasonable that Experian has avoided answering my queries comprehensively and referred me to MSE which is not responsible for managing Experian's operations or mistakes.

MallyGirl

if correcting data that was wrong increased the matching of information then that could lead to a change in profile. Your wife's finances may not have changed in her eyes but there could have been underlying (less favourable) data that wasn't linking in before and now it is.

BoGoF

Like your credit score these things are pretty meaningless. For example paying off credit can make your score go down.

Experian don't lend money and no lender is going to see that Experian rate you good, bad or indifferent.

[Deleted User]

mbf001 wrote: »

Thank you BoGof.

How do you know that though? My ranking changed overnight so something must have influenced it. Unless it is simply down to some perfunctory, unsupportable input by a keyboard operator the Experian algorithm must be driven by data.

What concerns me is that my previous ranking was "Good" and suddenly without any change of my or my wife's finances it changed to the lowest level. Either my earlier "Good" ranking was incorrect or the most recent low ranking is incorrect. Therefore it is a matter of simple logic that Experian got one of those rankings wrong.

It is also unreasonable that Experian has avoided answering my queries comprehensively and referred me to MSE which is not responsible for managing Experian's operations or mistakes.

Nothing has changed overnight. Since you don't have a credit rating or score.

Ignore it as others have said and just make sure the data on your file is correct

Willing2Learn

The affordability score is not provided by Experian. It is an MSE toy and you should therefore contact MSE Credit Club with your query and stop blaming Experian...:)