Random Credit Searches

adorablepig

Why do I get random companies constantly doing credit searches on my record, with the explaination to see what products they can offer me.  I know it's affecting my score, but is there a way to stop this?

bradders1983

The score is a meaningless marketing tool, stop worrying about it.

MovingForwards

What random companies?

Insurance? If so, I assume you used a comparison site at some point, then each year it re-runs a check ready for renewal.

Financial? Have you got the ' keep me updated with offers' box checked? If so, uncheck it.

Ignore the score / rating as it's not seen or used by any financial institution, they use the credit history as part of their algorithm when assessing applications.

cymruchris

They'll be soft searches and will have no impact on your credit history/credit file. They also won't make your random credit score go up or down either. If that number is moving, it's likely because you've spent £9.50 on a credit card, paid off an extra £25 on a debt, closed an account, opened an account or the sun shone between 3 and 4.45pm on Thursday. Those numbers are wildly random, and although are very loose indications of your creditworthiness, shouldn't be focused upon in terms of improving your credit history. Focus more on the actions rather than the number. Make sure everything is paid on time. Keep your utilisation of credit as a percentage low. Don't apply for too many products in a short timescale. Those kinds of things are far more important than a score that changes with the traffic lights. 

PRAISETHESUN

Random soft searches - nothing to worry about.
Random hard searches - something to worry about and you should look into these.

Either way, you typically have to give consent for these searches to be performed. In my experience it's usually from comparison sites - have you recently looked for insurance or shopped around for credit card eligibility? Easiest way to stop some of them would be to do as has been suggested above and uncheck the relevant boxes on any comparison service you use.

Otherwise as above, ignore your score. These numbers are not used by lenders to make any decisions so can be safely ignored. What actually matters is your credit history - the contents of your file. Make sure the information provided on your reports in up-to-date and accurate, and follow up on any unknown accounts or hard searches ASAP.