Hard Searches

Norlye

We are a family of 4 that have contracts with Sky mobile for the various phones & iPads the family uses. We are in the process of looking at getting a bank loan for some home improvements. When I check my Clearscore it is, correctly, flagging multiple hard searches for credit from Sky Mobile over the past year as phones etc get replaced.

My query is, are hard searches differentiated by the banks/ building societies or are they just flagged as looking for credit.
Are mobile phone contract credit requests seen in the way as a bank loan request would be, and therefore the Sky searches negatively score against us on the lending criteria in the same way as a bank loan credit request.

Thank you.

finalfantasist

Anyone searching your file will see what the searches relate to, at least into which broad category they were for.

A hard search is a hard search really, and I suspect that it's not going to be what the search was in relation to but the number of them that might cause you problems.  The only way to find out though would be to do an eligibility check and then a full application.

nyermen

While models vary between each company/financial institution (and are kept secret), generally, they look at volume&amounts of recent hard searches (in case recently granted debt is not yet on the file), and then the amount of outstanding debt (which will be on the file).  

Hence it's recommended to make no applications shortly prior to loan/mortgage applications, but longer won't matter as your eligibility is hardly dependent on if you moved house 5 years ago and as a result went got cable, internet, mobiles, etc.
Obviously this in addition to adverse markers such as missed payments, defaults, and CCJ's which are considered worse even when older.

Source: Myself, I've helped implement scoring models in the past, albeit not in the last 5 years, so things may have changed.

[Deleted User]

nyermen said:

While models vary between each company/financial institution (and are kept secret), generally, they look at volume&amounts of recent hard searches (in case recently granted debt is not yet on the file), and then the amount of outstanding debt (which will be on the file).  

Hence it's recommended to make no applications shortly prior to loan/mortgage applications, but longer won't matter as your eligibility is hardly dependent on if you moved house 5 years ago and as a result went got cable, internet, mobiles, etc.
Obviously this in addition to adverse markers such as missed payments, defaults, and CCJ's which are considered worse even when older.

Source: Myself, I've helped implement scoring models in the past, albeit not in the last 5 years, so things may have changed.

During your time implementing scoring models, is there generally a threshold to the number of hard searches the applicant has before it negatively impact their application?

What's a general number of hard searches to conduct when shopping for loans? Bearing in mind not all lenders provide eligibility checks or preapproval.

Thanks in advance