Credit score going DOWN

Iamdebtfree

Hi everyone,

Can someone please explain this to me?

I'm finally debt free. Can't believe I'd ever be able to say this. From circa £35K+ in debt for the last fifteen years to £150 overdraft (£1300 limit)- and I can close it any time I like - my partner and I got a sizeable inheritance just before Christmas, around 28K - we got it in euros, divided it between us so each have around 16K Euro in our separate Barclays accounts. I literally - unbelievably to me - do not have any debts anywhere. All credit cards cleared. Not a trace of anything outstanding anywhere. A big chunk of change in the bank - albeit in Euro.

So why is my credit score going DOWN rather than UP?? Currently at 543 out of 700 or some such; was at 563 last month. I thought it went up when you finally cleared all your debs and had savings??

Many thanks,

Iamdebtfree

[Deleted User]

No. The scores (especially Experian scores) generally react negatively to change. So clearing your debts has cause the score to drop, as it's a big change.

Fortunately, it's not used or seen by anyone but you, so just ignore it. It's purely for entertainment purposes.

Congratulations on clearing your debts.

torrence

Iamdebtfree - it could be that your debts were not seen by lenders as problem debts - were you keeping up repayments on time? If you had a good repayment record, then this can improve your score sometimes over someone who has no history of handling any loans or debts. However the change of score you give is not large - so it could be that the credit agencies scores are just adjusting to the recent change of debt status and will recalibrate after a couple more months and then you may get a clearer picture of how your debt free profile is scored.

Iamdebtfree

Thank you so much to those who replied! I have ALWAYS kept up with ALL of my repayments. Never ever defaulted on any of my debts... that's indeed probably why. And I'm DEAD happy to hear credit scores don't actually matter all that much!! I'm so done checking!!

maxximus75

Congratulations.


Get that overdraft paid off and keep out of it.

yksi

None of the CRAs can see savings, so it's not to do with that.

By any chance have you just opened a new account - a savings account perhaps? Applying for new accounts tends to ding the "credit score", but it doesn't matter since lenders don't see that number.