Contradictory advice from Credit Report Insights from MSE Credit Club

peter021072

Does this make sense to anyone?

You have 2 things to work on

You aren’t using the credit available to you

Try to pay down the amount of debt you have, if you can

MattMattMattUK

peter021072 said:

Does this make sense to anyone?

You have 2 things to work on

You aren’t using the credit available to you

Try to pay down the amount of debt you have, if you can

Do not worry, your credit score is meaningless. 

If you have a debt and it is sat there then lenders will see that as a bad thing, they also want to see you using the credit you have responsibly, which means using credit cards but paying them in full every month.

kimwp

peter021072 said:

Does this make sense to anyone?

You have 2 things to work on

You aren’t using the credit available to you

Try to pay down the amount of debt you have, if you can

Same - "you aren't using the credit available to you" and simultaneously "you are using too much credit" (on some of my cards). Would be nice to get a bit more detail on what they mean by the first one.

born_again

Forget the  rubbish the CRA's spout at you.

All that matters is you pay bill on time.

ManyWays

The CRA reports make their money by getting you to take out more credit.
A lot of cards and you get suggestions to consolidate into one loan, do that and you get suggestions to take out a card to improve your score. The silliest suggestion i have seen recently was Credit Karma suggesting that getting a limit over 15k will help your credit score. See this all as advertising that benefits them, not necessarily you.

So ignore their suggestions and instead look for the problems on your report; look closely at anything unexpected; and clear the debt.  You do not need to use a credit card if you are paying at least the minimum each month.

fatbelly

peter021072 said:

Does this make sense to anyone?

You have 2 things to work on

You aren’t using the credit available to you

Try to pay down the amount of debt you have, if you can

No, it doesn't make logical sense to me. But then I don't work in the marketing department of a money lender.

As a debt adviser, you should just concentrate on getting debt free and until that happens, pay as little interest as you can

MyRealNameToo

peter021072 said:

Does this make sense to anyone?

You have 2 things to work on

You aren’t using the credit available to you

Try to pay down the amount of debt you have, if you can

As others have explained, when you actually apply for credit the lenders dont see the score instead they apply their own logic to the data that the CRA holds and come up with their own decision. 

With the FCA having c900 registered lenders it should be no surprise that there are many views on what makes an acceptable or unacceptable risk. There is no way a single set of instructions could be given that all those firms are going to agree on outside of telling you to pay off your debt on time and dont commit fraud. Anything else you'll get conflicting views on hence last year when looking for a new credit card Satander declined, NW said they'd offer £1,500 limit and MBNA gave a £30,000 limit yet Im the same person making the same declarations to all of them with only NW having a prior relationship 

Nasqueron

ManyWays said:

The CRA reports make their money by getting you to take out more credit.
A lot of cards and you get suggestions to consolidate into one loan, do that and you get suggestions to take out a card to improve your score. The silliest suggestion i have seen recently was Credit Karma suggesting that getting a limit over 15k will help your credit score. See this all as advertising that benefits them, not necessarily you.

So ignore their suggestions and instead look for the problems on your report; look closely at anything unexpected; and clear the debt.  You do not need to use a credit card if you are paying at least the minimum each month.

It's not a good thing on your report to have cards paying just the minimum unless they are on promo rates as this indicates to a computer that you can't afford your lifestyle and are paying interest because of this

Nasqueron

peter021072 said:

Does this make sense to anyone?

You have 2 things to work on

You aren’t using the credit available to you

Try to pay down the amount of debt you have, if you can

If you had possible balance transfer offers then it might make sense though CRAs can't see that so who knows

peter021072

I'm not unduly worried, but I assumed it was a glitch in the MSE credit report or whoever does it for them.  Perhaps the confusion is down to one of my credit cards being 2 years at 0% APR, so I'm deliberately paying off the minimum for the time being, and will pay in full, or swap to a different 0% card when the 0% period is up. Of course that is exactly what is recommended by this site, although the banks must not like it. Perhaps, I should point out the glitch, assuming I hadn't misunderstood it.

There's no point in using the other credit card, so that's at zero balance

born_again

fatbelly said:

peter021072 said:

Does this make sense to anyone?

You have 2 things to work on

You aren’t using the credit available to you

Try to pay down the amount of debt you have, if you can

No, it doesn't make logical sense to me. But then I don't work in the marketing department of a money lender.

As a debt adviser, you should just concentrate on getting debt free and until that happens, pay as little interest as you can

Neither are the CRA money Lenders 🤷‍♀️