Starling Bank Credit Check

jbond

If this question has already been asked somewhere (I did try and check), then please point me in the right direction, however, just been browsing the T&Cs of their current account, and I quote:

"In order to continue to provide you with your Account, we carry out certain checks, including identity, fraud and credit checks, on a regular basis.
We also update credit bureaus and other data sources from time to time in respect of your Account."

Now I know that many banks DO do full checks during an application (which appears on your credit file), but does this mean that Starling do regular soft/hard checks on your account?
I assume they're soft checks, as otherwise they would be affecting your credit file?
Obviously, I don't know what 'regular' means, in terms of frequency.

Also, I can't download their app at the moment (in order to apply for an account), but anyone who HAS recently, can you confirm whether they DO do a full check even if you're NOT applying for an overdraft?

jefaz07

Mine in on my CF’s but they definitely do not hard search me regularly!!

jonnygee2

Starling did a 'soft' credit check for me. I believe that is standard practice of you are just getting a current account. They have not done another one since I applied two years ago.

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser

Opened an account last month -

Simply opening an account opting out of OD - soft check only
Applied for OD once the account had been up and running for a week or two - hard check

colsten

I am not sure how I could tell a soft check from a hard check - how do people do that?

In any case, Starling have done 2 lots of Quotation Search, AF and Anti-Money Laundering checks. I have no idea what an AF check is.The Anti-Money Laundering one strikes me as a hard check but may be it isn't.

One set of checks occurred on a Thursday, the other on the Saturday of the same week. This was many months ago, when I first opened my Starling GBP account. I have been offered an overdraft by Starling but I never applied for one, and I haven't taken up their offer. There have been no checks since account opening, and no further checks when I added the Euro account several months after opening the GBP one.

I don't actually care what type of checks they made, nor do I know whether you can draw any conclusions from the checks they made for me.

jbond

colsten wrote: »

I am not sure how I could tell a soft check from a hard check

I think they're shown separately on your credit report?

Sounds like Starling's T&Cs are out-of-date then?

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser

Taking the example of your report shown on Clearscore, hard checks will appear in the section "Credit Application Searches", soft/other checks (which have no impact) will show under "Quotation and Personal Searches". If Starling bank did a hard check, it would show under 'credit app searches'

Quotation searches, ID, AML and AF checks are not hard searches and will not impact your credit history/score.

colsten wrote: »

I am not sure how I could tell a soft check from a hard check - how do people do that?

In any case, Starling have done 2 lots of Quotation Search, AF and Anti-Money Laundering checks. I have no idea what an AF check is.The Anti-Money Laundering one strikes me as a hard check but may be it isn't.

One set of checks occurred on a Thursday, the other on the Saturday of the same week. This was many months ago, when I first opened my Starling GBP account. I have been offered an overdraft by Starling but I never applied for one, and I haven't taken up their offer. There have been no checks since account opening, and no further checks when I added the Euro account several months after opening the GBP one.

I don't actually care what type of checks they made, nor do I know whether you can draw any conclusions from the checks they made for me.

colsten

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser wrote: »

Taking the example of your report shown on Clearscore, hard checks will appear in the section "Credit Application Searches", soft/other checks (which have no impact) will show under "Quotation and Personal Searches". If Starling bank did a hard check, it would show under 'credit app searches'

Thank you for the explanation. I am not a Clearscore user, and and Credit Karma just distinguishes between my own and 3rd party searches. I must say, "AF" does strike me as a "hard" search, as it must involve looking at all my data. How else could they determine affordability, and what other than looking at all of my data could be considered a "hard" check?

But I have now signed up to Clearscore, which shows absolutely no searches for me from Starling, not even those you class as "soft". Checking further, I have a Credit Karma entry for "Checking Credit Application" from TSB in November (application for a current account). There is no sign of this one in Clearscore. In fact, Credit Karma shows I had 35 3rd party searches for 2019, whilst Clearscore only shows 14. What's more, none of the Clearscore ones show on Credit Karma, and vice versa. I think this is due to the fact that different companies use different credit reference agencies, and Starling doesn't use Equifax, which provides the data for Clearscore. IIRC, Credit Karma gets its data from Experian, which I believe is more widely used in the UK than Equifax.

Bottom line: you cannot tell from Clearscore whether Starling made any credit checks for you.

dr_adidas01

colsten wrote: »

Thank you for the explanation. I am not a Clearscore user, and and Credit Karma just distinguishes between my own and 3rd party searches. I must say, "AF" does strike me as a "hard" search, as it must involve looking at all my data. How else could they determine affordability, and what other than looking at all of my data could be considered a "hard" check?

But I have now signed up to Clearscore, which shows absolutely no searches for me from Starling, not even those you class as "soft". Checking further, I have a Credit Karma entry for "Checking Credit Application" from TSB in November (application for a current account). There is no sign of this one in Clearscore. In fact, Credit Karma shows I had 35 3rd party searches for 2019, whilst Clearscore only shows 14. What's more, none of the Clearscore ones show on Credit Karma, and vice versa. I think this is due to the fact that different companies use different credit reference agencies, and Starling doesn't use Equifax, which provides the data for Clearscore. IIRC, Credit Karma gets its data from Experian, which I believe is more widely used in the UK than Equifax.

Bottom line: you cannot tell from Clearscore whether Starling made any credit checks for you.

That's because they use Trans Union (Credit Karma) so it won't show up on Clearscore who use Equifax data to generate your report.

Eco_Miser

colsten wrote: »

I must say, "AF" does strike me as a "hard" search, as it must involve looking at all my data. How else could they determine affordability, and what other than looking at all of my data could be considered a "hard" check?

I believe that 'hard' does not refer to difficulty, but to whether the search will appear in your credit history, as seen by 3rd party searches. 'Soft' searches are seen only by you, and the party requesting the search.

jonnygee2

I believe that 'hard' does not refer to difficulty, but to whether the search will appear in your credit history, as seen by 3rd party searches. 'Soft' searches are seen only by you, and the party requesting the search.

Yes exactly. A soft search is one that cannot be taken into account in lender's decisions to give or not give credit.

To put it another way, a 'hard' search is really not just a search but also a registration that someone has applied for credit somewhere