Footprint: what do lenders see? and how to understand the info?

coinmonster

Hello, learning about credits scores, etc and want to get a detailed understanding, so hope this is th right place.

I have a lot of questions but if brainy folks on here can answer them, this will become a useful resource to help others interpret their own credit reports.

If you have a  search done, it leaves a "footprint".  When I look at copy of credit file from call credit, it shows a section "called credit search history".

Then it says the name and address of the search followed by many informations:

Search Date:

Search: Organisation

Search Purpose:

Balance/Limit

Credit Type:

Start Date of Address:

Current Address Match:

Search reference Number:

Date of Birth:

Search Organisational Unit

Type of Application:

Term:

Transient Association:

End Date of Address:

Opt In / Opt Out:

Some of these are self explanatory but some need explaining to me, so here goes some questions:

(1).How can I tell if it is a hard search or a soft search?  What means "Opt In / Opt Out: Opted Out"?  Is that it? so maybe it's a soft search if says Opted out?

(2) Whats the difference between "Search Organisation" and "Search Organisational Unit"?  I guess that is the searchers name or something?

(3) If another nosey company does a search, do they see all the informations verbatim?

(4) If a new lender does a search, will they see the names of which companies who left previous search footprints?  I read somewhere on here they do not see the name but do see the "Search Purpose" and "Credit type".  What is the truth?

(5) So if you have a footprint from "Wonga", you get rejected by anyone who sees that, but if it is from "Coutts" then you are all good?

(6) All active credit agreements are listed earler in the report.  Do searchers see the names of the companies you have other credit agreements with or do they only see the type of product?  So, if you have a barclays mortgage, do they just see a mortgage or can they see it is from barclays?

(7) What is "Start Date of Address" and "End Date of Address"?  Is that the move in move out dates from the credit application form?

OK, thats enought for now..  I hope you can explain!

Thanks in advance...

MovingForwards

Helps if you say with credit reference agency you use.

1. There will be a heading saying these impact your credit history (means hard search), there's another heading saying something else like searches (means soft search).

2. The name of the company who did the search.

3. Depends what access a company has, but they don't see the names of the other companies or whether it was a decline. However, three credit card applications and only one live one could indicate to them you've been declined for two.

4. See 3 above.

5. See 3 above.

6. See 3 above.

7. Without knowing which CRA you're looking at, I can't compare how mine looks and what it says.

Not all financial institutions report to all three main CRAs, some to one, some to two and some to all. Therefore you need to check all of them to ensure the info is correct.

Ebe_Scrooge

Not much more to add to the excellent information given above.  Maybe just one thing to remember:

coinmonster said:

Hello, learning about credits scores, etc

The score you see on your credit report is meaningless - it's not used, nor even seen, by any lender.  What a lender does is take all the data from your file, feed it into their systems, and they'll generate their own internal score.  Each lender will have different criteria, and will assign different weightings to each criteria.  Their scoring systems are confidential and commercially sensitive, so you'll never know what they're looking for in an "ideal" customer.

Some things are obvious and common across most lenders - being on the ER is good, having loads of defaults or a CCJ is bad, having a good track record of always paying your dues on time is good.  But as to the complex finer details, you'll never know.

phillw

Ebe_Scrooge said:

Some things are obvious and common across most lenders - being on the ER is good, having loads of defaults or a CCJ is bad, having a good track record of always paying your dues on time is good.  But as to the complex finer details, you'll never know.

And these are common among CRA credit scores too. So not exactly meaningless as you can log in, see the score has tanked and then look at the reason why.

[Deleted User]

phillw said:

Ebe_Scrooge said:

Some things are obvious and common across most lenders - being on the ER is good, having loads of defaults or a CCJ is bad, having a good track record of always paying your dues on time is good.  But as to the complex finer details, you'll never know.

And these are common among CRA credit scores too. So not exactly meaningless as you can log in, see the score has tanked and then look at the reason why.

But equally you can see if there is anything untoward just by looking at the report, ignoring the score completely. A drop of 100 from Experian could be over 10% but might be nothing more than a new current account being opened

coinmonster

MovingForwards said:

Helps if you say with credit reference agency you use.

1. There will be a heading saying these impact your credit history (means hard search), there's another heading saying something else like searches (means soft search).

2. The name of the company who did the search.

3. Depends what access a company has, but they don't see the names of the other companies or whether it was a decline. However, three credit card applications and only one live one could indicate to them you've been declined for two.

4. See 3 above.

5. See 3 above.

6. See 3 above.

7. Without knowing which CRA you're looking at, I can't compare how mine looks and what it says.

Not all financial institutions report to all three main CRAs, some to one, some to two and some to all. Therefore you need to check all of them to ensure the info is correct.

Thanks, that is helpful to know they don't see other lenders names.  I guess it makes sense for competition reasons.  How did you find that out?

I was looking at a paper credit report by call credit (now transunion) that I read the list of items in the footprint from. 

It doesn't say these will impact your credit history or not.  I am wondering if the Opt in / Opt out is something to do with it?

For the footprint i'm looking at it says it is "opted out"  it was "search purpose:general insurance", which I would expect to be a soft search but it does not say anywhere.

Also, what is "start date of address" and "end date of address"?

Thank you

MovingForwards

I've done credit checks in different types of businesses over the years and never saw names listed only amounts and type.

I don't use call credit / TransUnion directly so what you see about the other queries doesn't reflect the same in Credit Karma. 

It could be you've opted in / not opted out to have soft searches run for loans, credit cards and whatever else they try and sell you.

KoshB5

coinmonster said:

Hello, learning about credits scores, etc and want to get a detailed understanding, so hope this is th right place.

I have a lot of questions but if brainy folks on here can answer them, this will become a useful resource to help others interpret their own credit reports.

If you have a  search done, it leaves a "footprint".  When I look at copy of credit file from call credit, it shows a section "called credit search history".

Then it says the name and address of the search followed by many informations:

Search Date:

Search: Organisation

Search Purpose:

Balance/Limit

Credit Type:

Start Date of Address:

Current Address Match:

Search reference Number:

Date of Birth:

Search Organisational Unit

Type of Application:

Term:

Transient Association:

End Date of Address:

Opt In / Opt Out:

Some of these are self explanatory but some need explaining to me, so here goes some questions:

(1).How can I tell if it is a hard search or a soft search?  What means "Opt In / Opt Out: Opted Out"?  Is that it? so maybe it's a soft search if says Opted out?

(2) Whats the difference between "Search Organisation" and "Search Organisational Unit"?  I guess that is the searchers name or something?

(3) If another nosey company does a search, do they see all the informations verbatim?

(4) If a new lender does a search, will they see the names of which companies who left previous search footprints?  I read somewhere on here they do not see the name but do see the "Search Purpose" and "Credit type".  What is the truth?

(5) So if you have a footprint from "Wonga", you get rejected by anyone who sees that, but if it is from "Coutts" then you are all good?

(6) All active credit agreements are listed earler in the report.  Do searchers see the names of the companies you have other credit agreements with or do they only see the type of product?  So, if you have a barclays mortgage, do they just see a mortgage or can they see it is from barclays?

(7) What is "Start Date of Address" and "End Date of Address"?  Is that the move in move out dates from the credit application form?

OK, thats enought for now..  I hope you can explain!

Thanks in advance...

Having previously worked for one of the CRAs for a number of years, lenders see the total number of hard (credit application) searches over a period of time, they will not see who with or what was applied for or the status of the application i.e. accepted or declined. 

CRAs keep track of addresses (number of years history varies between CRAs), which they get from the account / public / electoral register data they get, building an orders list. When you make an application they will tell the lender if the address provided is deemed to be your current address and how the address was found e.g. from an account and / or the electoral register.