Credit club score tanked <700

Mr.Boy

I haven't used any credit score checker for a couple of years, after I'd got to the point it was always maxed out.
So I was pretty concerned when I saw the MSE score had plummeted to 697, and confused too because in the last couple of years I haven't moved, changed mortgage or changed lifestyle at all. In fact my income has gone up and I've never missed any payments on anything in my life (and our joint finances are also in better shape than for years too)

Looking in more detail, it's all looking ok apart from the section on disposable income which is apparently screwing things up.
Since I haven't logged in for a couple of years the account is out of date, but is that likely the issue? Does the credit check score rely on information I give because I thought the point was they looked at my actual activity, rather than the numbers I supply?

Mr.Boy

Also, can I see the history of my score in the tool? I can't seem to spot it and I'd love to see it if it's there.

molerat

Affordability should not affect the made up score - I used to have a poor affordability with a 999 score.  There must be something in the report somewhere.  There is no score history in the MSECC.

Mr.Boy

molerat said:

Affordability should not affect the made up score - I used to have a poor affordability with a 999 score.  There must be something in the report somewhere.  There is no score history in the MSECC.

Thanks that's kind of what I figured... Will do some further digging. The only flag I know of is that at 60% my credit card is a bit high, but I've had that years and years.
Looks like the next report is due very soon so I will start checking regularly.

DCFC79

The score doesn't matter, no one can see it except you.

CliveOfIndia

Mr.Boy said:

molerat said:

Affordability should not affect the made up score - I used to have a poor affordability with a 999 score.  There must be something in the report somewhere.  There is no score history in the MSECC.

The only flag I know of is that at 60% my credit card is a bit high, but I've had that years and years.

To reiterate what others have said, you can safely ignore the score since it's not even seen by a lender.

When you say your credit card is at 60% - are you carrying a balance from one month to the next, or do you always clear it in full every month?  If you always clear in full then percentage utilisation is irrelevant, but carrying a balance can be interpreted as a sign of financial hardship by some lenders (unless you're on a 0% promotional rate).

Mr.Boy

My score might be private but since the whole point of it is to be indicative of how lenders might view be, that doesn't mean it should be ignored. The number itself is irrelevant but anyone doing a credit check will end up looking at the same information used to generate this number, give or take, so a low number is a warning I might not be accepted on applications?

I pay off the CC monthly but the MSE information mentions getting close to maxing out your CC limit is an affordability metric. I have made additional manual CC payments once or twice in the last year when putting large purchases through the CC (like spending £4k on something) to make sure it doesn't hit the limit. 

CliveOfIndia

Mr.Boy said:

My score might be private but since the whole point of it is to be indicative of how lenders might view be, that doesn't mean it should be ignored. The number itself is irrelevant but anyone doing a credit check will end up looking at the same information used to generate this number, give or take, so a low number is a warning I might not be accepted on applications?

I pay off the CC monthly but the MSE information mentions getting close to maxing out your CC limit is an affordability metric. I have made additional manual CC payments once or twice in the last year when putting large purchases through the CC (like spending £4k on something) to make sure it doesn't hit the limit. 

The point is, every lender will have their own internal scoring algorithms - they take the raw data in your file, churn it though their systems and make a decision based on the outcome.  Since each lender will have different lending criteria and a different "preferred customer" profile, there cannot possibly be a one-size-fits-all score.  And the internal score generated by a lender will bear no resemblance to the score you see on your CRA report.  Apart from anything else, each of the CRAs (and each lender) uses a different rating scale (marks out of 100, marks out of 1000, marks out of 5000, whatever), so how could a lender's score even resemble the CRA score?

So yes, each lender will use the same raw data, but each lender will interpret it differently depending on their internal lending policies, risk appetite, target customer base, etc.

Regularly maxing out your credit card could potentially be a very slight red flag.  But regularly using 60% of it - assuming you always repay in full - is no cause for concern whatsoever.  In fact, it could be argued that a lender likes you to use a fair chunk of your limit, since they earn money from the merchant fees they charge the retailer every time you make a purchase.  Even if you always pay in full and pay no interest (which is the MSE thing to do), the lender gets a nice steady income stream with zero hassle in terms of having to chase late/missed payments or whatever.