Why is my score this low? Please help!

lizferris1984

Thanks very much to the person who recommended Clearscore!

Just looking at it now, makes a lot more sense than Noddle.

Cheers!

[Deleted User]

The score clearly bothers you as you mention it in every paragraph.

Seriously - ignore it!

What do you need an overdraft for?

[Deleted User]

Why do you need an overdraft? Seems like an unnecessary debt risk, could you just live within your means and not need one?

lizferris1984

I'm mentioning it because it's a tool to interpret how appealing you are to lenders.

Can't believe how much criticism I'm getting for this. Although it's ironic as your assumption seems to be that if I have poor credit, I can't manage an overdraft. Surely that's more down to what my income is, rather than my credit report?

Overdraft is to bridge gaps in cash flow due to an uneven pay structure.

lizferris1984

There's been some really useful responses so far, but I'm also feeling like this is an unfriendly place to be! Hopefully I'm wrong. But I'm already feeling disrespected/judged and this is the first time I've posted. So it's not very encouraging to say the least.

Fingers crossed it will get better.

Sncjw

What is your income that may have something to do with rejection

DCFC79

lizferris1984 wrote: »

I'm mentioning it because it's a tool to interpret how appealing you are to lenders.

Can't believe how much criticism I'm getting for this. Although it's ironic as your assumption seems to be that if I have poor credit, I can't manage an overdraft. Surely that's more down to what my income is, rather than my credit report?

Overdraft is to bridge gaps in cash flow due to an uneven pay structure.

Should really get out of the overdraft.

Why is the pay structure uneven ?

Do you receive a min amount and some months its topped up with say bonuses ?

DCFC79

lizferris1984 wrote: »

Thanks very much to the person who recommended Clearscore!

Just looking at it now, makes a lot more sense than Noddle.

Cheers!

Clearscore take the data from Equifax
Noddle is from Call credit

lizferris1984 wrote: »

I'm mentioning it because it's a tool to interpret how appealing you are to lenders.

Can't believe how much criticism I'm getting for this. Although it's ironic as your assumption seems to be that if I have poor credit, I can't manage an overdraft. Surely that's more down to what my income is, rather than my credit report?

Overdraft is to bridge gaps in cash flow due to an uneven pay structure.

You could say its a tool to be used that way but not much can be read into it as the score will drop when you take out a Very account, or a mortgage which aren't bad things to do.

Liz it isnt intentional I can assure you.

callistris

I would suspect the frozen credit card that was reporting to your credit files as 'AP' could have been a red flag regarding the overdraft. Now that you have got this changed, this will have a lesser impact as time goes by, same as the defaults will.

If you don't apply for anymore credit for a while and keep all other borrowing good and paid on time, the score that is personal to you with the different credit reference agencies will get better over time. It takes a while but it will improve.

Good luck with it all, you just need to be patient now.

HeCh

Sorry if the responses seem critical and unfriendly. I think it's just very hard for people to give definitive advice as nobody, except for those that decline an application, know the precise reason(s) why. Information on the types of things that effect the perceived risk of lending to an individual is publicly available but how all of this information is assessed to arrive at a final decision by a specific lender is not known.

You are doing absolutely the right thing by making sure that all the information held by the credit reference agencies is accurate and complete.

Many of the websites used to view this credit file information will also give you pointers to the sorts of things that may be seen as positive or negative or influencing factors (i.e. those that may make you a lower or higher risk in the eyes of the lenders) and I would suggest focusing your attention on these. Sometimes you can actively do something about things that are mentioned as possible negatives e.g. high credit card utilisation - you may be able to take steps to reduce this but sometimes you can't e.g. oldest credit account has not been held for a long time - you just have to wait for the passage of time.