Monthly balance massively overstated in Experian report

The_Boss

Just checked my Experian report via the MSE moneyclub. All looks ok, except the monthly balance on my Halifax credit card is massively overstated (between two to four times the actual balance). The balances for this card look fine on Equifax.

I'm applying for a mortgage in October, so with affordability being one of the criteria that is scored should I raise this with Experian or will the notice of correction potentially kybosh mortgage applications?

[Deleted User]

Don't put a notice of correction.

Do you clear your card each month?  If so, I wouldn't worry about it.  If not, dispute the data with Experian.

The_Boss

Deleted_User said:

Don't put a notice of correction.

Do you clear your card each month?  If so, I wouldn't worry about it.  If not, dispute the data with Experian.

Yep, paid off in full by direct debit. But won't the fact it is showing a higher monthly balance impact on affordability assessment for my mortgage application?

D3xt3r5L4b

It should show the statement balance, or a roundabout balance. 
Does it match with your match statements?

The_Boss

D3xt3r5L4b said:

It should show the statement balance, or a roundabout balance. 
Does it match with your match statements?

No it's not close to matching. It shows a balance that is typically two to four times the actual monthly balance (and in one case into four figures when I use this card very little). I check this account several times a month and pay in full by direct debit so know the account is fine.

Thrugelmir

The balance reported will be at a given point in time. Which will be much higher than your statement balance as will include subsequent spend but not your monthly payment. 

The_Boss

Just noticed when you drill down via "More details" it shows the correct monthly balance and the monthly payment totals. It is just wildly inaccurate when you see the summary of this card on the "Credit accounts" page (with the green payment indicators to show that I kept to the payment terms over time with the balance below it) without drilling down. This discrepency only affects my Hallifax card - both the summary and "More details" of my three other cards are correct.

The_Boss

Thrugelmir said:

The balance reported will be at a given point in time. Which will be much higher than your statement balance as will include subsequent spend but not your monthly payment. 

Thanks, but in some cases the summary balance is showing a figure far greater than the combined two months spends so it's not because of compounded spend following a statement.

sjwajw

We are financially healthy & have NEVER looked at our credit files until July 2020 when we signed up to MSE credit files. Was it worth it - NO NO NO! The info only relates to 'outstanding debts' which we have due to using 0% money transfers. But we have savings & of course these are not taken into account. Just checked August files and there are 4 mistakes on our 2 files already for 'debts.' we have cleared. The info on our files wasn't worth the effort. Looks like another MSE flop!

Shakin_Steve

sjwajw said:

We are financially healthy & have NEVER looked at our credit files until July 2020 when we signed up to MSE credit files. Was it worth it - NO NO NO! The info only relates to 'outstanding debts' which we have due to using 0% money transfers. But we have savings & of course these are not taken into account. Just checked August files and there are 4 mistakes on our 2 files already for 'debts.' we have cleared. The info on our files wasn't worth the effort. Looks like another MSE flop!

Care to list the other MSE flops? When you say 'was it worth it?', what do you mean exactly? It didn't cost you anything so are you just talking about your extremely valuable time?
The actual report is provided by Experian, not MSE, so I guess you're saying Experian is a flop?

[Deleted User]

sjwajw said:

Was it worth it - NO NO NO! 

I assume you mean 'Was it worth it - YES YES YES!'  since you found errors that you can now correct. 

Potential flop successfully avoided.