Credit score differences (same credit ref agency)

AntC

Hey all.

I’m hoping someone might be able to offer some clarification about credit scores. 

There’s no sugar coating things, my credit rating is terrible and has been for most of my adult life. You could say it passed down with the generations. We grew up with that ‘hide behind the sofa’ or ‘pretend we’re not in’ kinda attitude whenever the Provvy knocked on the door! I admit to being financially reckless in my younger years, but as I get older, I’m trying hard to improve my credit file… (as slow and painstaking as it can be!) I don’t like to think of me being considered ‘a risk’ or ‘untrustworthy’.

In the past, if I ever took out any form of credit, I did so with good intentions and made a real effort to make the repayments as and when I should. Sometimes though, life didn’t go to according to plan and I had to prioritise surviving etc. Not trying to give a ‘woe is me’ type story - it’s just how it is! I realise that, actually, biggest fault was burying my head in the sand during those times rather than try to deal with it.

For context, I do have a several long-standing phone contracts with O2. But am usually rejected for all other forms of credit. Over the last five years or so with O2, I’ve only been late paying once and that was during the pandemic. But, I contacted O2 to put an arrangement in place. Other than that, I’ve always repaid the full balances on or before their due dates. 

But as I say, all other forms of credit, I’m rejected about 99.99% of the time.  Although I was recently approved for a £600 credit card very recently, which I accepted (probably out of the shock of being offered one). I haven’t used it though. I just thought it could help in improving my score.

In the past, I had a CCJ but it was removed about 2 years ago and there’s nothing like that on my file right now. I am on the the electoral roll and have been in my current address for many years. I’ve established that my biggest ‘derogatory marks’ are for either historic late payments (beyond 2 years) or defaults (still occurring). I’ve managed to contact the companies I originally owed money to, or the debt collection companies they’d been passed on to and have now have arrangements in place etc.

To try to keep on top of things, I have several credit reference agency apps downloaded - Totally Money, Credit Karma, Experian etc and I check my score most days. It’s worth pointing out that it has been steadily rising for some time as at worst, around 2 years ago, it was something like 384 and I believe you can’t really go much lower than that. 

However, today I checked both CreditKarma and TotallyMoney and they have have different scores. Whilst TotallyMoney had a score of 512 (down from 520 last week) and is apparently a real time score, CreditKarma had a score of 533 which is up from 512 since yesterday. Both say they use TransUnion so just a little confused. 

It sounds stupid because obviously all of the above scores are terrible and in the “very poor” category but I was a little reassured that the extra effort I’m making by repaying debts etc is paying off. Or is it? 

TotallyMoney using this grading and rating: 

0-550 - very poor
551-565 - poor
566-603 - fair
604-627 - good
628-710 - excellent

On this basis, if I can get my score up even just another 18 points, it supposedly goes from “very poor” to “poor”, which is something. Hopefully I can then continue to build on this. But the discrepancies with the scores confuses me. 

In the last year, I’ve taken advantage of using sites like Klarna, Zilch and ClearPay. By taking advantage of, I don’t mean abusing them, I mean utilising the service. However, I’ve made sure I’ve only ever used them when needed and always repaid in full either before or on the first scheduled repayment date and I wondered if this would have had any impact on my score?

Anyway, sorry for the ramble. I just wants to provide as much info as I could. But I guess my question is: why are my scores different on TotallyMoney and CreditKarma when one is real time and the other has only been generated today?

thanks for reading.

[Deleted User]

Your credit scores are made up numbers and have no bearing on your credit worthiness. 

Their main problem is that they don't like change - so as you pay off debts, scores often drop.

Fortunately, lenders know this and never see your score. They'll only ever assess you on your circumstances and credit history.

So ditch the scores and focus on the data only - check everything is accurate and then reduce your debt as much as possible..

sourcrates

Credit scores are mainly used to market credit improvement products, such as high interest credit cards and loans.

Similar credit score questions are asked every day on these forums, the post "what your credit score really means" at the top of this forum, explains things in more detail.

MaryNB

Use the credit card when you need credit. Keep your usage to about 30% of the limit. Pay it off in full when you receive the statement. At the every least set up a direct debit so it pays off the minimum payment every month. Stop applying for credit, too may hard searches on a credit report are seen in a negative light. If you need credit use your credit card. Focus on settling your current defaults rather than buying new things on credit, unless they are absolutely necessary items.

If you are paying for access to your Experian credit report, cancel immediately. Never pay. Also check your Equifax credit report. Request one off statutory reports from each provider (Experian, Equifax or TransUnion) or use the following for free access:

• Clearscore for Equifax
• MSE Credit Club for Experian

You already are using free access to Transunion which is good.