Equifax "current years on the electoral register"

agrado

I have recently been trying to move house (rental), and found that I was effectively blacklisted by Equifax due to their rating of me being somewhere around "Nick Leeson's less-trustworthy brother". This was due to a multitude of errors at their end, which I have been fighting through their incompetence for the last couple of months trying to fix one by one (every error they blame on other people, e.g. Royal Mail lists my current address in their database but Equifax didn't, so this error in Equifax's database was apparently Royal Mail's fault and I was told to ring Royal Mail to get them to fix it; the council listed me on the electoral register but Equifax didn't, so Equifax told me to ring the council and tell them to fix Equifax's database, etc).

Anyway, it's now much improved and my rating is now a much better 466, but the only remaining 'alert' on my report is the Electoral Register section, which (finally, after much work) lists me as being consecutively at my current address for 1 year, and the previous address for 2 years, and the address before that for three years (which I wasn't, but whatever), for a total "current years on the electoral register" of.... 1. Never mind that I've actually been on the electoral register continuously for decades.

Equifax insist that this is correct and when they say "current years on the electoral register" they mean "years on the electoral register at your current address only, ignoring any previous addresses". Is that really true? Does anyone who ever moves instantly get a big knock to their credit rating until they've been living in the same place for 3 years? 

D3xt3r5L4b

Correct. 

Your “current years on the ER registration” only applies to your current place of abode.

Where you were registered at previously is of no relevance to anyone really, but it’s visible for previous addresses with from and to dates under your ER registrations on your report. 

And your “much improved rating of 466” means diddly in the real world and no lender will care about it. 

agrado

D3xt3r5L4b said:

Correct. 

Your “current years on the ER registration” only applies to your current place of abode.

Where you were registered at previously is of no relevance to anyone really, but it’s visible for previous addresses with from and to dates under your ER registrations on your report. 

And your “much improved rating of 466” means diddly in the real world and no lender will care about it. 

It just potentially makes sense that being visible for a longer period of time makes someone less likely to be some sort of fraudulent identity and therefore a better credit risk, presumably. But it seems a bit weird that Equifax would specifically flag up as a problem in their reports that you haven't lived at your current address for three years - it's not like you can do anything about it.

On the other hand, Equifax's credit report pages are extremely confusing and are frequently apparently self-contradictory (e.g. "You have no credit agreements! You have two credit agreements. Here is a list of your eight credit agreements.")

My previous, lower, credit rating led directly to my getting refused a tenancy so it certainly can affect the real world.

D3xt3r5L4b

But Equifax aren’t a lender so their advice on improving your lender credibility is to be taken with a pinch (or grain) of salt. 

And it wasn’t your rating or score that would have affected your ability to rent.

Tenancy checks only look for what a “landlord” would see;
What can landlords see?

Landlords also routinely run checks on potential tenants but, unlike with lenders, the information available to them is purely public – this means that credit account history (credit cards/loans etc.), financial associations, and past credit applications will be hidden from them. These are called “soft-searches” and are used regularly by landlords, employers and insurance companies.

Why do they search my credit file?

Landlords want to know that the person they’re letting into their property is who they say they are; they can do this, which is corroborated by checking your Electoral Roll status at current and previous addresses lines up with what you’ve provided.

They will also check for Court information to gain an idea of whether there has been any serious issue in the past with reclaiming payments. As the landlord has no visibility of your previous credit agreements, this is the best insight they can get from your credit file as to into whether you have a seriously troubled repayment history. As a result, the presence of any court information can make a big difference to the outcome of your application.

Landlords will often ask for proof of income, in the form of a reference or payslip, as a means of assessing whether you are likely to be able to afford the monthly rent.

agrado

As I already mentioned in another thread, RentGuard reported my Equifax Credit Score to the landlord, and based solely upon that number, they decided to reject me as a tenant. So while you may well be correct in describing how things are supposed to work, it isn't how they always work in reality.