Northumbrian Water now on credit file

GenieBoy

Just checked my TransUnion report (via Tesco Creditview) today and I have noticed that Northumbrian Water have now started to report to my file. It is showing up to date payment info for February and March and an account start date of 2017 which is correct.

Why have they suddenly started reporting me to the CRAs? I've never missed a payment the whole time I've had the account plus I'm on a meter and pay twice yearly when the meter is read so why are they reporting monthly? Meter is read every January and July.

Anyone else on Northumbrian Water noticed them now appearing on their credit files?

MorningcoffeeIV

Utilities increasingly report to the CRAs.  Being up to date or in arrears doesn't impact that. No cause for concern.

CliveOfIndia

As above.  I would just add - having a load of "on-time & up-to-date" payments recorded is beneficial to your credit history.  So not only is there nothing to worry about, they're actually doing you a favour by starting to report to the CRAs.

Lizzie321

Same has happened to me, but it's taken my score from good to poor. No other movement on my credit file so it's definitely that.

Lizzie321

Incidentally I pay instalments by DD and have done for over 20 years, never missed a payment.

MorningcoffeeIV

Lizzie321 said:

Same has happened to me, but it's taken my score from good to poor. No other movement on my credit file so it's definitely that.

That's to be expected. Your score has dropped because you have new, positive data on your file.

Fortunately, no one will ever know about your score.

Lizzie321

MorningcoffeeIV said:

Lizzie321 said:

Same has happened to me, but it's taken my score from good to poor. No other movement on my credit file so it's definitely that.

That's to be expected. Your score has dropped because you have new, positive data on your file.

Fortunately, no one will ever know about your score.

I think it's affected my ability to get credit, though - for a few weeks I've been unable to use PayPal Pay in 3 or Klarna, when I've used them without issue for years. Suddenly they've stopped being an option when I pay for things. Both have no balance as I always pay them off before I use them again. 

The sudden drop in my score is the only thing I can think of that's caused it.

MorningcoffeeIV

As per your other thread, it's a physical impossibility.

GenieBoy

I can state that NWL reporting to my credit files hasn't knocked me down on the "scores".

sourcrates

Lizzie321 said:

MorningcoffeeIV said:

Lizzie321 said:

Same has happened to me, but it's taken my score from good to poor. No other movement on my credit file so it's definitely that.

That's to be expected. Your score has dropped because you have new, positive data on your file.

Fortunately, no one will ever know about your score.

I think it's affected my ability to get credit, though - for a few weeks I've been unable to use PayPal Pay in 3 or Klarna, when I've used them without issue for years. Suddenly they've stopped being an option when I pay for things. Both have no balance as I always pay them off before I use them again. 

The sudden drop in my score is the only thing I can think of that's caused it.

Let me try to explain about credit scoring in this country.

When you apply for credit, the lender will use there own credit scoring system to see if you match their lending criteria.

Every lender has their own scoring technique, they all use the same information, and try to match you to the kind of customer they cater for basically, different lenders cater for different groups of people, depending on how they score you, so you may get credit with one lender, but not another.

That is the system lenders use, in one form or another, most of them anyway.

Now the credit score the credit reference agencies generate, has nothing whatsoever to do with any lender, CRA`s do not lend money, but some act as credit brokers, so they use there own scoring system to generate a number only you see, that is designed to give you an indication of how well you may score when you do apply for credit from a lender.

They use this as a tool to generate income by acting as a broker for credit improving financial products such as high interest loans and credit building credit cards etc.

The CRA credit score is a randomly selected number that won`t include all the information used in a real credit check, so it should never be used as an indication of your credit worthiness, as no lender ever sees or uses it.

Hope that explains things a little better.

FindMyWayBack

Quite normal for water companies to record payments. It's all good, don't worry about scores, just keep your history good.