Credit scores and accounts

Daliah

Deleted_User said:

Daliah said:

Deleted_User said:

Daliah said:

Your credit score is largely a meaningless indicator that lenders will ignore.

If you don't plan to apply for large credit (e.g. mortgage) in the next 6-12 months, any hard searches for current account applications don't matter. 

You can see on your credit files who performed a hard search, and when. 

To correct, it's an entirely meaningless number, no lenders ever see it, it's never used in any decision on lending. 

I would agree that it is never used in any decision on lending but I don't think it is true any longer that no lenders ever see it. Natwest and RBS, for instance, have gone to great length to update their app to show people their Transunion credit scores. Escapes me, though, why they do this.

Their app showing you the free score is about responsible lending, the score is still irrelevant and lenders never see it

If you apply for an account with NatWest, the only score they see is the one on their internal system

They can see anything and everything you can see in the app.

Daliah

Deleted_User said:

Zaul22 said:

Vaguely relevant question though... what about account age?

The account age part of my report says 'moderate risk'. 
If I were to close my main lifetime bank account so my average account age went down from 11 years to probably 2-4 years, would that matter to anything?

Bank accounts that are not credit accounts (i.e. no overdraft) have no impact in the scheme of things, the average account age is irrelevant, all lenders care about is good credit history (paying bills on time) and you having some stability e.g. keeping an old credit card running and being on the electoral role for as long as possible ideally at one location

Account longevity does matter, if only as a minor factor, according to MSE, who say this on my credit file report:

eastcorkram

@Daliah

You mentioned viewing your credit file. How do you do this please? Is it by using the same companies that do the credit scores? Which everyone says is a waste of time? 

[Deleted User]

Correct.

You can view your three files via Clearscore, MSE Credit Club and Credit Karma.

eastcorkram

@[Deleted User]

I've just signed up to clearscore for the first time ever. I can now see my meaningless score. I can't see anything about credit files though ?

RG2015

eastcorkram said:

@[Deleted User]

I've just signed up to clearscore for the first time ever. I can now see my meaningless score. I can't see anything about credit files though ?

Click on Reports and then Credit Report and scroll down to see your credit report which comprises the following.

Bank accounts
Credit cards
Mobile phone contract
Utility contracts
Credit searches
Linked people (eg joint accounts)
etc

You can do the same for Credit Karma and MSE Credit Club.

Also see details on the link below. Notice that MSE do not trash the concept of credit scores, although it does state that they are not that important.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/credit-rating-credit-score/

eastcorkram

I see it now . Sorry, should have looked harder! Everything seems fine. I wondered , because I had a bag stolen a few years ago now, which contained tons of stuff. Passport, pay slips, P60s, pension paperwork, both for state and private, bank statements, tablet (unlocked) yeah I know, etc etc. 
I'm a lot more careful with stuff now!

RG2015

eastcorkram said:

I see it now . Sorry, should have looked harder! Everything seems fine. I wondered , because I had a bag stolen a few years ago now, which contained tons of stuff. Passport, pay slips, P60s, pension paperwork, both for state and private, bank statements, tablet (unlocked) yeah I know, etc etc. 
I'm a lot more careful with stuff now!

I forgot to say that the three credit reporting agencies all have access to the same data but do not all report this in the same way. This is why it is advisable to check all three.

• The Experian report is available free of charge via the MSE Credit Club
• The Equifax report is available free from Clearscore as you have seen
• The Transunion report is available free from Credit Karma

[Deleted User]

RG2015 said:

eastcorkram said:

I see it now . Sorry, should have looked harder! Everything seems fine. I wondered , because I had a bag stolen a few years ago now, which contained tons of stuff. Passport, pay slips, P60s, pension paperwork, both for state and private, bank statements, tablet (unlocked) yeah I know, etc etc. 
I'm a lot more careful with stuff now!

I forgot to say that the three credit reporting agencies all have access to the same data but do not all report this in the same way.

They don't all have the same data. They will only show the data from the providers that report to them.

RG2015

[Deleted User] said:

RG2015 said:

eastcorkram said:

I see it now . Sorry, should have looked harder! Everything seems fine. I wondered , because I had a bag stolen a few years ago now, which contained tons of stuff. Passport, pay slips, P60s, pension paperwork, both for state and private, bank statements, tablet (unlocked) yeah I know, etc etc. 
I'm a lot more careful with stuff now!

I forgot to say that the three credit reporting agencies all have access to the same data but do not all report this in the same way.

They don't all have the same data. They will only show the data from the providers that report to them.

True, and thank you for correcting me. Banks and other credit providers do not report all of our data to the all of the CRAs.

I have found though that all of my bank current accounts and credit cards are on all three reports. My utilities and telecommunications providers do not all report to all of the CRAs.

Searches are interesting though with there being no real pattern to the CRAs used by credit providers. Experian appear to be the CRA of choice for most bank hard searches with Equifax coming second and Transunion not ever having a hard search for me.

I have about 20 hard searches from Experian over 6 years, and 3 or 4 from Equifax, and as I say none from Transunion.

Transunion though appear to be the CRA of choice for Anti Money Laundering (AML) searches.