ClearScore dropped 76 points

Worriedandalone

I appreciate that this is very much first world problems and credit scores, particularly on ClearScore, are not an exact science so the answer to this will inevitably be not to stress. However, I’d like to understand thinks better as it feels odd to me.

Up until last month my score on ClearScore was around 950 so I was very much in the Excellent category. However, last month my mobile phone needed to be replace and I took, what I thought was, a fairly standard contract with EE for £27 a month. This month however I’ve discovered that this single hard search has harmed my ClearScore by 76 points. Is that normal?
it’s the only hard search for over 12 months and both of my 2 credit cards and mortgage are paid off in full on time every month. So nothing else on my record would be considered negative, just this single hard search.
would that be enough to cause 10% dent in my score?

400ixl

Your score is meaningless and used for them to sell you products. No one sees it but you and them. As long as your financial history is accurate then forget about the score. Any financial decision will be made on that history and the individual providers criteria, not the score from the likes of Clearscore.

Forget it and move on.

MattMattMattUK

Worriedandalone said:

I appreciate that this is very much first world problems and credit scores, particularly on ClearScore, are not an exact science so the answer to this will inevitably be not to stress. However, I’d like to understand thinks better as it feels odd to me.

Up until last month my score on ClearScore was around 950 so I was very much in the Excellent category. However, last month my mobile phone needed to be replace and I took, what I thought was, a fairly standard contract with EE for £27 a month. This month however I’ve discovered that this single hard search has harmed my ClearScore by 76 points. Is that normal?
it’s the only hard search for over 12 months and both of my 2 credit cards and mortgage are paid off in full on time every month. So nothing else on my record would be considered negative, just this single hard search.
would that be enough to cause 10% dent in my score?

Your made up number for marketing purposes dropped, if you had opened the new product via ClearScore it would have gone up, but then your Experian score would have gone down. 

Your credit score is about as relevant to your finances as the position of the stars are to the rest of life. 

noitsnotme

Just to show how much nonsense it is,  a few months ago I applied and was accepted for 3 money transfer credit cards.  So that was 3 hard searches. I then immediately withdrew money from all 3 which increased my short term debt by £20000.  My ClearScore score remained the same at 1000.

With the most recent update there were zero searches, my short term debt decreased by a couple of thousand and ClearScore reduced the score to 943.

It’s snake oil and not worth worrying about at all.

DullGreyGuy

See it's a pity you prefer Clearscore over Experian as it wasnt long ago where they were offering to increase your score by 150pts in exchange for you sharing more personal information. That'd have gotten you up to 100% or 1,000 or whatever the maximum is and you'd have been happy again. Obviously nothing would have actually changed and your chances of getting credit wouldn't have changed at all but you'd have been happy with your new snake oil and they'd be happy with the personal data you gave up for nothing. 

Scores shown by these sites are a work of their marketing department. 

molerat

My score went down when I paid off a stoozed £5K credit card debt, go figure !

Leylander

My score went down by 80 points after i paid off a bill, always been in high numbers, i thought it was down to my age but after reading the answers on here i will be deleting clearscore. waste of time and energy reading all there emails!

CliveOfIndia

Leylander said:

My score went down by 80 points after i paid off a bill, always been in high numbers, i thought it was down to my age but after reading the answers on here i will be deleting clearscore. waste of time and energy reading all there emails!

It's worthwhile checking your credit report from time to time, just to make sure all the information they hold on you is factually accurate.  But the score itself is, as you have realised, pretty much meaningless.

Perhaps the only value it serves is if you see a sudden large fluctuation for no obvious reason (you haven't opened a new line of credit or paid off an existing debt).  In that case, it's worth checking to see if there's any data on your report that shouldn't be (e.g. someone fraudulently taking out credit in your name).

But that's about the only useful purpose the score serves.  In and of itself, it's meaningless.

Nasqueron

Leylander said:

My score went down by 80 points after i paid off a bill, always been in high numbers, i thought it was down to my age but after reading the answers on here i will be deleting clearscore. waste of time and energy reading all there emails!

I check Clear Score and Credit Karma on the web, not having their apps on my phone, it's good as Clive says, to check them weekly or so, just to ensure nothing untoward appears. The alerts about new credit agreements being added are worth having, mine are always from bank accounts from switches etc but if something pops up I don't recall, I can check it over