Does checking your credit rating affect your rating?

wanoennogs

As per the title. If I check my credit rating does it negatively affect my credit rating?

I was refused a loan today. I am confused as to why as I have no debt or bad credit. I want to check my credit rating. I don't want to check my credit rating if it will affect me negatively.

. 

DCFC79

wanoennogs said:

As per the title. If I check my credit rating does it negatively affect my credit rating?

I was refused a loan today. I am confused as to why as I have no debt or bad credit. I want to check my credit rating. I don't want to check my credit rating if it will affect me negatively.

. 

In no way does you checking your credit file affect anything.

Don't go by the score or rating as no one can see it, your history is whats important, thats what lenders see, you see it yourself.

MorningcoffeeIV

It doesn't matter if it does. It doesn't appear as a search to lenders, which is your real question.

Will_Riker

No, checking your own file has no impact at all.

wanoennogs said:

I was refused a loan today. I am confused as to why as I have no debt or bad credit.

. 

This may be the problem. Daft as it sounds, having very little credit history can be almost as bad as having a bad credit history.  Simply because a lender has no historical data to go on.

There may be other factors at play, of course, such as affordability (the amount of the loan in relation to your income).

sourcrates

wanoennogs said:

As per the title. If I check my credit rating does it negatively affect my credit rating?

I was refused a loan today. I am confused as to why as I have no debt or bad credit. I want to check my credit rating. I don't want to check my credit rating if it will affect me negatively.

. 

People get refused for a loan, credit card, whatever it might be, and as far as you are concerned you can`t understand why, your mind starts to enter the realms of fantasy, trying to think of an explanation, and you start to seriously overthink the issue, you were refused the loan either because of something negative on your credit report, or you just didn`t fit the lenders profile criteria for borrowing, or a combination of the two.

You can look at your credit report 50,000 times a month, if you choose, and it won`t make one appath of difference to the outcome.

x_raphael_xx

Will_Riker said:

No, checking your own file has no impact at all.

wanoennogs said:

I was refused a loan today. I am confused as to why as I have no debt or bad credit.

. 

This may be the problem. Daft as it sounds, having very little credit history can be almost as bad as having a bad credit history.  Simply because a lender has no historical data to go on.

There may be other factors at play, of course, such as affordability (the amount of the loan in relation to your income).

Yep. When me and my ex were looking to buy a house together her rating was rubbish, as she had never had a credit card or loan etc.
Mine was great as I'd had both. She was fuming as she had £10k saved up for a deposit and couldn't understand why.

Creditors like to see you have used credit and paid it back. That's why I still keep a credit card active for groceries & pay it back in full each month.

Edited to add:
Checking your file is good practice in case there are errors. I was refused once and when I checked my file I was incorrectly listed as not being on the electoral register. Quick message to my local council for a ref code and it was updated.

wanoennogs

Thank you for your replies. They are very helpful.

EdwardB

MorningcoffeeIV said:

It doesn't matter if it does. It doesn't appear as a search to lenders, which is your real question.

Will_Riker said:

No, checking your own file has no impact at all.

When I asked Experian about this they told me that if I made a request then it would show that search, but I think that is because Experian do not recognise the concept of a subject access request.

I saw something about this online so I searched Google for Experian Subject Access Request which takes you to what Experian call a Data Access Request and Statutory Credit Report, neither of these is a proper Subject Access Request.

For some reason Experian not only massively resist a subject access request but they use any attempt to access your data as an opportunity to gather MORE data from you.

They say this is for "verification" but you can't verify someone's email or date of birth if you never had it in the first place.

This is the first page of their data grab

https://www.stat.experian.co.uk/Person/Person

It is better to get the PDF and send it by post but do not be surprised if still they will find reasons not to comply.

https://www.experian.co.uk/downloads/consumer/Stat-Application-Form.pdf

They actually ask for copy of your ID and store the info therein, some shills will find reasons for this but consider Experian are happy to share your data with companies who pay them with only your name and address. So they should be prepared to provide you with your data by post to the very same address they have on file if they have it.  How do we know they have your data, because when you move they share that fact with people who pay them to put an "alert" on you.

I remember slowly paying down my overdraft and my bank said they were going to reduce the OD, when they did this they informed the credit reference databases despite promising me they would not do that. 

Over the next few weeks I got all the email chains from all the debt agencies that put alerts on me.