Same property, new postal address. Will it affect credit ratings?

richard6868

The freeholder of our block of flats wants to change the postal address of some of the flats in our block because of chronic and acknowledged difficulties with postal deliveries.  The new and old postcodes are in the same area (XXn) and the second part of the postcode has the same opening digit.  We all have to agree to the change for it to happen and will be weighing the pros and cons.

The house and the occupants are in the same place as they were previously so, in terms of credit worthiness and ratings amongst other things, does this change count as a 'change of address' (i.e. is an 'address' a physical thing, the house itself, or a description)? 

If so, will the change have an adverse effect on credit ratings?

D3xt3r5L4b

How much is changing? They can’t just change them - there’s a process to go through and get approval.
Regards your “rating” - you don’t have one to be affected anyway. 

MaryNB

You may have an issue if it's changed for Royal Mail but not for your local council. 

I have an awkward address (we end up with delivery men knocking on bedroom windows because they can't find the front door). Also, Royal Mail uses a different first line to the council. This meant that two of the credit rating agencies didn't have me down on the electoral roll. Transunion sorted it pretty quickly, took Equifax 3 months to sort it.
The other issue that could occur is if some of your financial data ends up tied to your old address rather than your new one. When I moved into my current place, I stupidly put the address that brings people to the front door on most of my accounts, not the Royal Mail address.  Some financial institutions later changed it to the Royal Mail address (without asking but they did inform me). My credit card was missing off my Experian account as a result. I have to make sure all my credit files are tied to three versions of my address. 

richard6868

Maybe I mean "credit score" rather than "rating": the number I get on my Experian credit report, for example?

MaryNB

richard6868 said:

Maybe I mean "credit score" rather than "rating": the number I get on my Experian credit report, for example?

Lenders can't see the Experian/TransUnion/Equifax score. It's irrelevant to them. They look at the information on your file and make their own assessment. Make sure all your information is correct on all three files, use credit responsibly, ignore the score.

When I got my electoral roll info updated on Equifax they put a notice of correction on my file (they shouldn't have but apparently Equifax has a tendency to add NOCs) just as I was about to apply for a mortgage. My score didn't change but the NOC on my file was an issue. Two lenders told me this would be problematic despite the credit rating agencies giving me "excellent" scores. The lenders didn't see the score, they assessed the NOC based on their own criteria.

Ebe_Scrooge

richard6868 said:

Maybe I mean "credit score" rather than "rating": the number I get on my Experian credit report, for example?

Your Score - the number that Experian give you - is totally meaningless, and is neither seen nor used by any lender.  Yes, it will drop in response to any change in your circumstances, but that means absolutely nothing.

If a change of address is recorded on your file then this will have an effect on how future lenders view your creditworthiness.  However, a single address change will have such a miniscule effect as to be insignificant.  If you've been moving house every 6 months for years then this would be a cause for concern for lenders, but a single change of address will cause no problems.

MallyGirl

As long as it is done properly with Royal Mail then it will eventually be OK but there will be some initial challenges. The PAF match file which contains all the UK addresses agreed with RM is widely used in computer systems and is only updated every 6 months. If your timing is bad then that could prove a challenge for applications till it is sorted. I would recommend everyone splashes out of a redirection from the post office - this creates a movers entry in RM data which will get used to tie you to both addresses (but this may have the effect of making it seem like you haven't been at your property for the full duration).

The problems it is seeking to fix would have to be pretty bad for me to agree to something like this tbh