Credit score has dropped 300 points in 1 month... help!

hart89

I have googled this, it says if you apply to be on the register between August-november your electoral details should appear on the report from 1st of December. This was on the Experian website.

hart89

I have just been reading about "financial association" and wish I'd considered this sooner . My partner has poor credit file, and has a default. When we moved in together in September we opened a joint account (natwest) to pay bills/rent out of... would this affect my mortgage application as I am now financially associated with him? Argh wish I knew all of these things before!

enthusiasticsaver

Yes financial association with someone who has bad credit is not a good idea especially if you are looking for a mortgage. Close the account as soon as.

The other things you mention like change of address, high credit usage compared to limits and numerous credit searches will affect your score. The only thing which is likely to put a spanner in the works re a mortgage application could be the high credit usage. The score means nothing to lenders as they have their own methods of credit scoring which is not the same as the credit agencies. They are only supposed to be used as a guide.

hart89

Ok I have been on the phone to experian this morning. I paid off £6300 of my car finance (final balloon payment) on monday this week, they will have update from BMW finance 3-6th of the month so hopefully that will show early december. So that will be good for my credit I'm assuming?

The joint account - all of our bills come out of it (energy, internet, rent, council tax) , most are in my name , so I don't want to close the account altogether. Do you think if partners name is removed from the account that would be ok? And hopefully I can apply to have the financial association with him removed, or at least if it comes up during the application I can say/show evidence that we no longer share a joint account?

My mortgage adviser says that the association doesn't matter, but I'm thinking it does as that is one thing that has happened recently that would affect the scoring. She is more concerned about a missed payment showing on my file from 2017 for an old credit card, and also a missed payment to orange from 2013. Should I dispute these too??

DD265

Your Experian credit report updates monthly. If you go into it (I go via the MSE Credit Club because it's free) then you should see the next report date at the top right.

You should also check Equifax and CallCredit; different lenders use different reports.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/check-free-credit-report/

And use this guide for all three:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/credit-rating-credit-score/

If you can prove that you didn't miss those payments then by all means dispute them, but you may find that it's not quick to get them updated. I'm currently having a nightmare with Equifax over a loan that was settled in July - and they've known this since September at the latest yet it still shows a balance.

hart89

I got my Equifax credit report yesterday, and theres a few errors in it. Like it had current address as an old address from about 3 years ago (I have lived at 3 other addresses since then!). So I've updated the most recent 3 (they only show 3 addresses on your report apparently...)

My mortgage adviser says it might be worth applying with Halifax as they do a soft search when doing the DIP and have similar rates to Nationwide which was my first choice.

I have phoned Virgin about a late payment that is showing on my account in September 2017 - if they can see it wasnt my fault can they remove that from my credit report?? Am I doing the right thing going straight to virgin, or should I be going through the CRAs?

I went with partner to natwest this morning and filled paperwork to remove his name from joint account, will take up to 7 days. Then will apply to dissacoiate from him with each CRA - does anyone know how long that takes generally?

DottieDam

I might be wrong but my understanding was that even if you close the joint account the financial association will stand for three years. So I don't think there is a point in closing it if you use it and need it.

kingstreet

You can request a disassociation immediately there are no open financial connections.

hart89

Hmm strange, I've just logged in to my credit expert club and my experian score on there is 960, says the report date is 29th of November. Logging on through Experian website itself it still says 614... why the difference? Is it because credit club is still showing last month?

[Deleted User]

Again - it's because the scores are fictional. They can be whatever you want them to be.