Illegal credit search resulted in large drop in credit score

Onlinemoneyguru

Q:
Is there anything I can do to bring my score to where it was prior to illegal credit search or would I have to rebuild? 

Context:
I had a broadband company salesman lied to me that the search his company does will increase my credit score and it wouldn't leave a footprint. I later found this to be completely false. They did a hard search which caused a significant drop in my credit score. I made a complaint to the company who have since removed the search however my score is still low from the initial drop.

MovingForwards

The credit score is not seen or used by financial institutions as they have their own internal algorithms for assessing applications.

The scores you and I see go up / down with any change eg moving home, opening / closing an account, having a credit card balance / paying it off etc.

[Deleted User]

The score is a gimmick that no-one sees but you
The search was not illegal and they have removed it so no lenders will see any trace of it
All lenders use their own scoring system that you will never see

mcpitman

Onlinemoneyguru said:

Q:
Is there anything I can do to bring my score to where it was prior to illegal credit search or would I have to rebuild? 

Your credit score is fictitious at best, it matters not one jot to anybody but you. Even lenders don't use it.

To repair your score, buy a packet of biscuits and have a jolly good cup of tea. After that, don't worry about your score anymore. It's nonsense.

Context:
I had a broadband company salesman lied to me that the search his company does will increase my credit score and it wouldn't leave a footprint. I later found this to be completely false. They did a hard search which caused a significant drop in my credit score. I made a complaint to the company who have since removed the search however my score is still low from the initial drop.

Maybe stop believing "salesman"........

What I said above.......

Ebe_Scrooge

Just to add to what others have said, by way of reassurance ... A single search in isolation will have a miniscule effect on your credit history anyway - it's only when you have multiple searches in a short space of time that it starts to raise concerns for lenders.  The fact that the search has been removed means that your history has not been impacted at all.

Notice how I refer to "history".  This is what a lender will look at - as has been stated by previous posters, the score is not used, nor even seen, by any lender.

Exodi

Onlinemoneyguru said:

Context:
I had a broadband company salesman lied to me that the search his company does will increase my credit score and it wouldn't leave a footprint.

I find it quite incredulous that such a thing would be claimed.

If this is true and there hasn't been a misunderstanding (what does broadband have to do with someones made up credit score?) then I'd assume this probably isn't a mainstream broadband provider...

Ebe_Scrooge

Exodi said:

Onlinemoneyguru said:

Context:
I had a broadband company salesman lied to me that the search his company does will increase my credit score and it wouldn't leave a footprint.

I find it quite incredulous that such a thing would be claimed.

If this is true and there hasn't been a misunderstanding (what does broadband have to do with someones made up credit score?) then I'd assume this probably isn't a mainstream broadband provider...

Well, given that broadband is usually paid monthly, and is therefore a credit product, it usually will appear on your credit history, and will affect (probably negatively) your fictitious score.  But I completely take your point, the salesman's claims are completely irrelevant.

It's probably a moot point anyway, given that the OP hasn't even bothered to log back on to see the responses to their (one and only) post.

WillPS

Exodi said:

Onlinemoneyguru said:

Context:
I had a broadband company salesman lied to me that the search his company does will increase my credit score and it wouldn't leave a footprint.

I find it quite incredulous that such a thing would be claimed.

If this is true and there hasn't been a misunderstanding (what does broadband have to do with someones made up credit score?) then I'd assume this probably isn't a mainstream broadband provider...

Tends to be a representative from comparison engines (Broadband Choices 'on behalf of BT' I think was the last one we had) rather than the ISPs themselves. They used the whole 'we're here to get you upgraded to Fibre' patter. You'd think they'd at least glance to see the very visible Openreach Fibre ingress point immediately to their left...

Leave the dirty work to someone arm's length away I guess.

phillw

Ebe_Scrooge said:
Well, given that broadband is usually paid monthly, and is therefore a credit product, it usually will appear on your credit history, and will affect (probably negatively) your fictitious score.

The score isn't fictitious, they don't intend it to mean what you think it doesn't mean.

Any credit you take out will appear on your file, if you take out a lot of credit all at once then lenders might view you in a worse light and this is what the scores are supposed to help you understand.

They might still lend to you despite seeing you in a worse light. So it might not have any effect to your ability to get credit (otherwise CRA would just give you a credit score of 0 or 1).

Taking out credit in the long term will improve how lenders see you, but presumably the OP is already paying for broadband anyway & it will likely show up on the credit file.

Don't sign up to broadband after speaking to someone on the phone or at the door, it's never in your best interest. They make stuff up all the time.

macman

The score is fictitious, and you are the only one who can see it.  You can have a score of 999 or 99, and it will make no difference to your chances of getting credit, because all that lenders look at is your credit history.
The process by which the CRA's convert your credit history into a fictitious credit score is entirely arbitrary and meaningless.