Credit rating plummetted

Darnhall123

I’m a 62 year old man. Still working full time / 40% taxpayer. Homeowner / no mortgage, no debt at all. 

For years, I’ve had an excellent credit rating (999/999 Experian). 

Recently though (2 months ago), I’ve opted out of the company car scheme at work and bought a car on PCP over 4 years and also taken out a credit card to be used solely for fuel / maintenance etc and plan to pay it off in full every month. 

My credit rating this month has plummeted to 693/999 ‘poor’. 

Is this the norm and if so, how long does it take to recover?!

flaneurs_lobster

Why do you want it to "recover"?

What do you think will be better if it does? 

Brie

The score is meaningless as no potential creditor ever looks at it.  They look at your credit history instead.  

What they will see if they looked right now is a lot of hard credit checks being done and wonder what's caused that and then see the PCP and new card.  They would be cautious if you asked for more credit.  But in a few months when there are a number of payments on your history and nothing nasty showing up they would get less cautious.  But this only matters if you intend on applying for more credit - including getting a new phone contract or monthly paid car insurance.  

Darnhall123

flaneurs_lobster said:

Why do you want it to "recover"?

What do you think will be better if it does? 

In fairness, it probably doesn’t matter! I have no plans to take out a mortgage, a loan, or finance of any kind. I’m just so used to having a perfect score, it was a shock to see such a drop in one go, so curious to see how long it takes to get back to where it was. 

flaneurs_lobster

If you were wanting a loan or finance then that number will be of no relevance to the prospective lenders, they don't even see it.

It's a made up number that's there to keep you looking at the website and the ads for credit products linked from it.

Go check the other two credit reference company's websites if you like, they'll have a different made up number. 

There's clearly nothing wrong with your record, someone's just lent you the money for a car and someone's given you a credit card. Stop sweating the daft number. 

Darnhall123

flaneurs_lobster said:

If you were wanting a loan or finance then that number will be of no relevance to the prospective lenders, they don't even see it.

It's a made up number that's there to keep you looking at the website and the ads for credit products linked from it.

Go check the other two credit reference company's websites if you like, they'll have a different made up number. 

There's clearly nothing wrong with your record, someone's just lent you the money for a car and someone's given you a credit card. Stop sweating the daft number. 

Thanks for the info. Like they say, “every days a school day!”  🤓👍

Darnhall123

Brie said:

The score is meaningless as no potential creditor ever looks at it.  They look at your credit history instead.  

What they will see if they looked right now is a lot of hard credit checks being done and wonder what's caused that and then see the PCP and new card.  They would be cautious if you asked for more credit.  But in a few months when there are a number of payments on your history and nothing nasty showing up they would get less cautious.  But this only matters if you intend on applying for more credit - including getting a new phone contract or monthly paid car insurance.  

Thank you