Refusals missing on credit file

EmmaJ_3

I have requested my £2 credit file from both equifax and experian, as I was turned down for credit a few times right after I moved house 6 months ago, and wanted to make sure everything was ok before I try again.

I have just received my Equifax one, and some things are missing from it;

Have had a HSBC Mastercard for 6 years, always made minimum repayments and paid off in full periodically. I still have it but no debt on it, £4k available credit, for emergency use only. It's not on my file at all.

I applied for a NatWest credit card and was refused, search isn't there
I applied for a RBS credit card and was refused, search isn't there
I applied for a Dorothy Perkins storecard and was refused, search isn't there
(all these refusals were about 4 months ago now).

All thats on there is a search from my new bank when I opened my new account, my mobile phone contract with no defaults, and my current bank account with no defaults.

Now I know it's not really a bad thing that those searches haven't shown up, but does it mean that something is going wrong somewhere?

HeadInSand_2

Maybe they'll show on the Experian one..?

doveman

I recently got both my Equifax and Experian reports and found a lot of stuff wasn't on the Equifax one, so I guess a lot of companies only use Experian.

Zebedee69

Always remember, some companies only report to Experian and some companies only to Equifax.

Dont forget My Call Credit too, although they are a minor player in the market so if you check Equifax and Experian you have 99% of the market.

Some companies eg: LTSB use both............

EmmaJ_3

Ah thankyou, I was thinking that because the table in the article said Natwest and RBS use both of them, that it meant it would report to both of them..........I guess just because they'll search both doesn't mean they'll report to both? Didn't think of that!

Just waiting for the Experian one then.

rainbow_carnage

i'm a bit confused as to what should and shouldn't be on the credit file. we got my husband's report from experian, and almost nothing was on there. he's had an HSBC bank account and credit card for almost 10 years. it wasn't on there. nor were any of his other accounts (savings) our our joint account. pretty much the only thing that was on there was his mobile contract and a credit check by Halifax.

it didn't look right, so we went to talk to the manager of our local HSBC branch. he clearly had never seen a credit report before, but he insisted that the reason why none of the HSBC stuff was there was because they hadn't done a credit check in the last 6 months. that doesn't sound right.

can someone please tell me for sure what should be on the credit report? (HSBC use experian, btw)

gt94sss2

Some companies may only provide details of accounts that have been paid late. If the accounts have been paid on time it may explain why they do not hold the information.

Also, I believe on many older accounts (9/10 years+), the T&C of those accounts don't allow the banks to pass on 'good' credit history..

Regards
Sunil

YorkshireBoy

rainbow_carnage wrote: »

i'm a bit confused as to what should and shouldn't be on the credit file. we got my husband's report from experian

Was it the £2 statutory report? If so, they normally send their 'Your credit report explained' booklet* with it. It should answer most of your questions.

he's had an HSBC bank account and credit card for almost 10 years. it wasn't on there.

Not unusual. Accounts opened prior to 1998 (Data Protection Act re-vamp meant T&C's had to be changed to get your permission) often didn't get reported, unless there was some negative account conduct. Many bank's chose not to report positive account conduct.

nor were any of his other accounts (savings)

A credit report contains details of credit accounts (loans, current accounts, mortgages, & credit cards), not savings accounts.


* Can also be viewed/downloaded in pdf format from the Experian website.

webbo100

My credit report doesn't contain details of my existing mortgage, shows the previous one as settled. But not the current one, I'm not if this is because its an offset mortgage or not. I certainly won't be complaining though, probably helps me get better CL's without that debt showing.

But certainly as Yorkshireboy says savings accounts won't show.

I think you may find where companies are shown as using more than one credit agency, they will actually prefer one and only use the second if there is any doubt over the application.

rainbow_carnage

hi. thank you for your replies.

the reason why we had checked his credit report was that he got turned down for a student account at halifax due to a low credit score. halifax was entirely unhelpful in explaining it any further than that. i don't know what score they were looking for, but i can't imagine that the average student has much of a credit history. my husband, on the other hand, has had a credit card and an account with an overdraft that he's always paid off on time for the past 10 years. he also has £9k in savings. he's recently gone back to uni full-time, and thus qualifies for the account, and yet he got turned down. that was surprising. (he got one with natwest afterwards.)

the other thing that happened was that he was refused roaming on his new tmobile contract (unless he puts down a £250 deposit). again, they said that his credit score was too low. this is despite him having contract phones over the last 7 years (including with tmobile), always having access to roaming without a deposit, and always paying his bill on time. he phoned up tmobile, and they were entirely unhelpful.

something must have gone wrong somewhere that his score is this low, but i can't, for the life of me, figure out what. where should we go from here?

Trembling_Turnip

I was refused for a Sainsbury's credit card in August and when i checked my credit report from Equifax and Experian in September a search was not listed.

I wonder whether some companies refuse you before even doing a credit check on the basis of the answers you give on the application form?

Also my Experian file had the majority of stuff on their but no mention of my mobile phone or egg personal loan. The Equifax one only had about two entries on there with LOADS of stuff missing. When I queried it the customer service rep said it was up to the individual companies to provide them with the information.

I think this is pretty unfair of Equifax as the two entries for credit cards it had were ones from five years ago when i missed a couple of payments, but no mention of my almost perfect repayments in the last four years!