No adverse credit, great references but still scored low

Abc1983

Hi all

I’m looking for some insight as I’m genuinely confused about the outcome of my recent tenancy reference check.

I am in full time employment with a salary of 5x the annual rent for the property and have never missed a rent payment - both my previous landlord and employer have provided positive references which have shown as “accepted” on the final report.

Regarding my credit file, I have no adverse public information, I am on the electoral roll and have been for years, both at my current property and previous.

After submitting all of my details and starting to plan the move without even so much as a second thought that there might be an issue with references, I received a message from the estate agency stating that I had returned a low credit score and that a guarantor was required. Being genuinely baffled by this, I responded saying that there must be some sort of mistake. This response was met with “no, tough” basically. However, after making further enquiries with Equifax and the referencing agency (who have been really helpful), it transpires that an old address was missing from submitted data. Once the referencing agency added this, it almost doubled my “risk score” (positively) but still did not meet the landlords threshold. Following further investigation by the referencing agency and me obtaining a copy of my Equifax report to them, it has been confirmed that there is a further issue with the status of my electoral roll info at a previous address.

The agency has helpfully written to Equifax to attempt to rectify this but now I have to wait 72 hours to find out if this will actually increase my score again. Presumably it will as I cannot think of anything else that could be bringing the score down - I have scrutinised every word on my credit file today but see absolutely nothing wrong.

Has anyone come across this before? Can any of you think of anything else that may have been missed that’s affecting my rating?

Many thanks in advance.

[Deleted User]

Only the estate agent can answer that, if they choose to. The score they're giving you is determined by the criteria they're using.

Abc1983

Yes. I have asked for the algorithm or data set they use but they have said that they simply “buy” a report from Equifax. The odd thing is that both Equifax and the referencing agency have both said that I should have passed. Hopefully once their data matches up I will but I was just curious as to whether anyone had come across this before and also seeking suggestions as to what else could be affecting the score. Surely regardless of the data they choose to set their benchmark against, if there is nothing negative on my file, a negative score can’t be possible?

DCFC79

Abc1983 wrote: »

Yes. I have asked for the algorithm or data set they use but they have said that they simply “buy” a report from Equifax. The odd thing is that both Equifax and the referencing agency have both said that I should have passed. Hopefully once their data matches up I will but I was just curious as to whether anyone had come across this before and also seeking suggestions as to what else could be affecting the score. Surely regardless of the data they choose to set their benchmark against, if there is nothing negative on my file, a negative score can’t be possible?

We cant see your report so cant comment.

You tried another agency ?

[Deleted User]

Abc1983 wrote: »

Surely regardless of the data they choose to set their benchmark against, if there is nothing negative on my file, a negative score can’t be possible?

Well, it's obviously possible.

They may prefer renters to be over 60.
They want to see ownership of at least 5 active credit cards.
They may want no financial associates.

There's lots of criteria that you could fail on, without them looking like negatives to you.

The problem you have is finding someone at the agency who knows the criteria. They may be buying a report from Equifax, but the contents and any ratings are being determined by the criteria they've set.

Do they only use Equifax? Do they also use any other CRA or perhaps CIFAS?

Abc1983

I’ve checked Equifax, Experian and call credit via various sites today and have spoken with representatives at Equifax and Experian. All have confirmed no adverse data at all.

Willing2Learn

Abc1983 wrote: »

... regardless of the data they choose to set their benchmark against, if there is nothing negative on my file, a negative score can’t be possible?

The Electoral Register data accuracy is pretty important and that could lead to your score being negatively impacted against the referencing agency criteria. You need to get that tidied up asap

Abc1983

They only use Equifax apparently. I have no financial associates and no CIFAS warnings (both confirmed by the report I obtained today(

Abc1983

I am hoping that’s what it is as they’ve already written to Equifax to rectify this following receipt of my report today 😊

[Deleted User]

Remember the score they use is their own internal one not the ones used by the CRA’s.

And they are also not obliged to tell you what their scoring methods and algorithms as

T-G-C

Abc1983 wrote: »

They only use Equifax apparently. I have no financial associates and no CIFAS warnings (both confirmed by the report I obtained today(

They have probably had rogue tenants in the past and have enhanced their criteria for renting. Just keep going with fixing everything that is wrong with your credit file and once that is done, if they still refuse you, I would look elsewhere.

On a side note; not all CIFAS entries are visible to your credit file. If you have not committed fraud in the past, then I would not worry about that element of it.