big drop! 11 November 2022 at 2:49PM in Credit file & ratings 12 replies 551 views

col81

Hi, i had a 999 experian score, i took a new mortgage 4 months ago and a £13k personal loan, i also have £1500 on a credit card all with santander. My score has dropped to 722.

My partner has recently done the same thing at the same time and hers is still 988.

Why has mine dropped so much i haven't missed any payments etc 

MorningcoffeeIV

It's the cold weather. Credit scores are made mostly of metal and so they contract in low temperatures. Your partner may have a higher body temperature.

Fortunately, your score means nothing and isn't seen by anyone. Lenders assess you on risk against their own criteria.

mr_stripey

what happened to ZX81? Not seen him around recently. This would be right up his street!

cymruchris

Your history prior to your changes will have an impact on the way the magic number goes up or down. The number moving down is not something to be concerned about - and to have a rating of 999 isn't something you need to worry about either. Lenders are only interested in your history, your debts to income ratio, how you manage your credit card, whether you pay in full every month, whether you often carry a balance, the list of what they look at is as long as your arm. (As mentioned above - it might be the cold weather has made yours go down, as you're spending more time outside than your partner! - and yes obviously this is a tongue in cheek comment, as you're one of the many that come in a blind panic wondering why the number has moved, when in reality it doesn't matter in the slightest). 

col81

ok thank you for the advice. I am going to clear the £1500 credit card and then just have the loan for my car and mortgage 

Catsacor

mr_stripey said:

what happened to ZX81? Not seen him around recently. This would be right up his street!

He seems to have deleted his account -  or it's been deleted for him, this is a massive blow to this forum because his advice was invaluable  😞


For Reference To All Members -
Sometimes, when posters ask questions answers aren't always what they want to hear - somebody will report it (usually as being 'unfriendly' ) and after so many 'reports'  that helping member (usually the most valuable) gets banned.
Not saying this is definitely the case but this scenario is a frequent occurrance.

MrFrugalFever

Catsacor said:

mr_stripey said:

what happened to ZX81? Not seen him around recently. This would be right up his street!

He seems to have deleted his account -  or it's been deleted for him, this is a massive blow to this forum because his advice was invaluable  😞


For Reference To All Members -
Sometimes, when posters ask questions answers aren't always what they want to hear - somebody will report it (usually as being 'unfriendly' ) and after so many 'reports'  that helping member (usually the most valuable) gets banned.
Not saying this is definitely the case but this scenario is a frequent occurrance.

Spot on, I had a post removed by MSE because I had stated the obvious. I’m guessing the OP didn’t like my frank response.

MalMonroe

mr_stripey said:

what happened to ZX81? Not seen him around recently. This would be right up his street!

I thought zx81 was female?? But yes, not been seen for a while. 

mr_stripey

MalMonroe said:

mr_stripey said:

what happened to ZX81? Not seen him around recently. This would be right up his street!

I thought zx81 was female?? But yes, not been seen for a while. 

My mistake - I should have said what happened to "them" since I did not know anything about their gender.

Ebe_Scrooge

I have been wondering the same thing for a few weeks.  I noticed that he/she shows up as "deleted" rather than "banned", so assume they left voluntarily for whatever reason.  But a sad loss to the forum, their advice was always spot-on.

Oh, and to the OP - bear in mind that not all lenders report to all 3 Credit Reference Agencies.  So it may be something as simple as the lender your partner used doesn't report in to the same CRA as yours does.

But as previous posters have said, the score you see is meaningless, and will drop in response to any change in your credit circumstances, whether good or bad.  Lenders will look only at the underlying data, and create their own internal score based on the data.  The criteria they use in their internal scoring algorithms is confidential and commercially sensitive, so no-one will know how their scoring works.

MrSilk

I made one new application last month and my score on Clearscore dropped 80 points, am I bothered? No. The score is meaningless and only I see it!.