Minimum balances in bank accounts and impact on credit rating

Cropstar

When I log into Clearscore, some of the impacts on my "affordability score" are:

- Your balance is often below £1,000

- Keep £200 in each account.

Since I saw this a few months ago I've been keeping a £1,000 float in my primary bank account and £200 in each of my spare accounts. Is this really necessary though? Some of the accounts pay no interest and whist it wouldn't make a huge difference, I would keep balances to a minimum and put the residual into savings.

Do banks get annoyed if you keep £0 or £1 in each account?

MorningcoffeeIV

Your balances aren't seen by lenders, so the only issue is whether the bank where you are holding your account sees you as profitable or not.

Ignore the gibberish from Clearscore. 

friolento

I would ignore what Clearscore say. As you say, there is no point keeping money in accounts that pay no interest, and there is no requirement from any bank for a minimum balance in a current account. Just avoid getting overdrawn.

eskbanker

Cropstar said:

...my "affordability score"...

Not sure if your quotes reflect the fact that this is a number made up by ClearScore, that won't be seen by prospective lenders, but in any case, if you have adequate savings, why are you interested in a credit agency's opinion of your 'affordability'?

Cropstar

eskbanker said:

Cropstar said:

...my "affordability score"...

Not sure if your quotes reflect the fact that this is a number made up by ClearScore, that won't be seen by prospective lenders, but in any case, if you have adequate savings, why are you interested in a credit agency's opinion of your 'affordability'?

Like all these things I was interested in maximising my credit score (over a number of years, but it’s excellent for a while now) and then the affordability metric which always seemed to lag.

Thankfully my days of needing credit are past me (used to live in debt when younger but been clear for a while now).

Thanks for the responses. I have switched my secondary accounts down to a £1 balance. I’m still leaving £1k in my primary account, both for convenience (if I suddenly needed cash for some reason) and also as it’s easier to work out my ‘left to spend’ as I tend to give myself £150/week to play with after savings/investments/bills/transfers to a joint account.

MorningcoffeeIV

Cropstar said:

eskbanker said:

Cropstar said:

...my "affordability score"...

Not sure if your quotes reflect the fact that this is a number made up by ClearScore, that won't be seen by prospective lenders, but in any case, if you have adequate savings, why are you interested in a credit agency's opinion of your 'affordability'?

Like all these things I was interested in maximising my credit score (over a number of years, but it’s excellent for a while now) and then the affordability metric which always seemed to lag.

Oh well. Nothing you can do about it now, but at least you know you can ignore it going forward.

flaneurs_lobster

To get that meaningless "Affordability Score" have you linked your bank accounts to Clearscore by Open Banking?

Why? They'll just use this information to pump credit card and car loan deals at you (no doubt all "pre-approved-ish").

Clearscore's useful to get access to your Equifax credit report for free, but don't feed them more of your personal stuff than you have to.

Nebulous2

I was just wondering how they knew. 

One of the reasons CRAs are so off the mark with people's affairs is that they don't know what money you may have. 

The free report agencies try to pump you for some  of it - MSE credit club asks me about income before I get put through to my full report, but I can't recall Clearscore asking to link to my bank accounts, and I certainly wouldn't let them. 

flaneurs_lobster

Nebulous2 said:

I was just wondering how they knew. 

One of the reasons CRAs are so off the mark with people's affairs is that they don't know what money you may have. 

The free report agencies try to pump you for some  of it - MSE credit club asks me about income before I get put through to my full report, but I can't recall Clearscore asking to link to my bank accounts, and I certainly wouldn't let them. 

Linking your accounts is an optional extra so that Clearscore can add value to your credit reporting journey.

penners324

Absolutely pointless unless it's earning a decent interest rate.

Unlink your bank account from Clear Score, it'll fix this issue 

ZeroSum

On clearscore all of my accounts show a zero. Credit ratings aren't impacted by how much you have anyway