Cashplus Credit Builder Question

T-G-C · 5 January 2018 at 11:52PM

Hi all,

I am already building a credit profile through my sub-prime cards, catalog with Shop Direct and unsecured loan.

I want to add Cashplus Pre-Paid card with Credit Builder to boost my rating. They claim it can only benefit you, but I was wondering...

If lenders check your credit report and see Cashplus on there, won't they think by nature, that you are desperate for credit and building an "artificial" profile? Surely lenders have clocked a way to identify people using these "easy" methods of building a credit portfolio?

I heard that lenders upon a credit check can't see the name of the lender, only the stats and figures of the account, is this true? If such is the case, having a Cashplus credit builder shouldn't be a negative when it comes to the future.

UPDATE: Thanks for your advice and opinions, I have decided against the card, since the data reported to the CRA's would look ridiculous to a lender, potentially when automated and definitely when manually reviewed.

Reason: The loan value is below £100, which is lower than sub-prime standards. The re-payment is a couple of quid per month, which will also look rather silly upon inspection by a lender.

DCFC79 · 6 January 2018 at 12:25AM

Your not boosting your rating, your improving your credit file which is what lenders see.

betweenarockandhardplace · 6 January 2018 at 12:26AM

I have a Cashplus credit builder loan, lenders can only see that it’s a loan, how much you owe and if payments have been made on time, they can’t see that it’s a cashplus creditbuilder account

T-G-C · 6 January 2018 at 12:34AM

DCFC79 wrote: »

Your not boosting your rating, your improving your credit file which is what lenders see.

Sorry, that is what I meant.

You are an experienced person, would you say in your humble opinion, that this would benefit me as someone with a limited credit file? It is limited as I turned 18 in 2017.

No defaults, missed / late payments or other bad marks. Just a limited history in terms of file length, as it only dates back to August 17.

T-G-C · 6 January 2018 at 12:36AM

betweenarockandhardplace wrote: »

I have a Cashplus credit builder loan, lenders can only see that it’s a loan, how much you owe and if payments have been made on time, they can’t see that it’s a cashplus creditbuilder account

Thanks for your clarification, it is appreciated.

boo_star · 6 January 2018 at 12:48AM

T-G-C wrote: »

Sorry, that is what I meant.

You are an experienced person, would you say in your humble opinion, that this would benefit me as someone with a limited credit file? It is limited as I turned 18 in 2017.

No defaults, missed / late payments or other bad marks. Just a limited history in terms of file length, as it only dates back to August 17.

If you already have a credit card that is being used and paid on time as well as a loan then any impact this "loan" would have is likely to be minimal at best so you're basically flushing £71.40 down the toilet.

As to whether a lender will know who the loan is with, the answer to that is almost certainly yes. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that a £71.40 loan taken out over 12 months paying £5.95 is almost certainly a Cashplus Creditbuilder loan.

T-G-C · 6 January 2018 at 12:55AM

boo_star wrote: »

If you already have a credit card that is being used and paid on time as well as a loan then any impact this "loan" would have is likely to be minimal at best so you're basically flushing £71.40 down the toilet.

As to whether a lender will know who the loan is with, the answer to that is almost certainly yes. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that a £71.40 loan taken out over 12 months paying £5.95 is almost certainly a Cashplus Creditbuilder loan.

Now when you put it like that...:rotfl:

Creditors that run automated credit checks for approval, which more and more are doing these days to cut human resource, shouldn't have algorithms that can run such an in-depth analysis of where a loan has come from, because if that data isn't provided to them on the credit file, it shouldn't be relevant - like soft searches.

Unless of course the lender specifically wants to filter out people who have used Cashplus, in which case they will intentionally program the software to scan specific parameters on a persons credit file to detect a Cashplus loan - and then decline the application :rotfl:

I haven't applied for it yet, as I wanted to know if it is worth the time, but since I already have a handful of credit accounts giving me "OK" marks per month, it seems pointless for me.

It sounds like a good thing for those who cannot obtain even a sub-prime card.

boo_star · 6 January 2018 at 1:03AM

T-G-C wrote: »

Now when you put it like that...:rotfl:

Creditors that run automated credit checks for approval, which more and more are doing these days to cut human resource, shouldn't have algorithms that can run such an in-depth analysis of where a loan has come from, because if that data isn't provided to them, it shouldn't be relevant.

Unless of course the lender specifically wants to filter out people who have used Cashplus, in which case they will intentionally program the software to scan specific parameters on a persons file to detect such.

I haven't applied for it yet, as I wanted to know if it is worth the time, but since I already have a handful of credit accounts giving me "OK" marks per month, it seems pointless for me.

It sounds like a good thing for those who cannot obtain even a sub-prime card.

If a lender doesn't feel that a "loan" like this is a positive, I can see no reason why they wouldn't filter them out by an algorithm. And of course if an application is manually reviewed, a real person would be able to spot what it is straight away.

The general view of most people on here is that spending money to improve your credit file is foolish and ultimately a waste of money. If you have a bank account then the account they're offering along with this is useless so it's £71.40 down the drain for what is I suspect going to have little to no impact in how creditworthy lenders view you as being.

T-G-C · 6 January 2018 at 1:10AM

boo_star wrote: »

If a lender doesn't feel that a "loan" like this is a positive, I can see no reason why they wouldn't filter them out by an algorithm. And of course if an application is manually reviewed, a real person would be able to spot what it is straight away.

The general view of most people on here is that spending money to improve your credit file is foolish and ultimately a waste of money. If you have a bank account then the account they're offering along with this is useless so it's £71.40 down the drain for what is I suspect going to have little to no impact in how creditworthy lenders view you as being.

I agree with you. I cannot imagine lenders liking these services, as it creates artificial data, since the loan value isn't even paid out to the customer and the re-payments are a couple of quid.

As time proceeds, I would imagine that lenders will put measures in place to automatically block loans below a certain threshold from being counted in their checks, either that or be even smarter by implementing direct detection of CRA reported data patterns from companies like Cashplus via statistical analysis.

SnowTiger · 6 January 2018 at 11:04AM

LOQBOX claims to do a similar thing.

They pretend to lend you a wad of cash that you pay back over twelve months.

No credit check, no interest and the 'loan' is reported to CRAs.

After twelve months you get all your payments back by opening a savings account or ISAs. LOQBOX makes money from the referral.

It was poo-pooed when mentioned here previously.

It claims to offer FSCS protection and you can cash-out your 'savings' early if you wish.

https://www.loqbox.co.uk/shortcodes/faq/:

Is my LOQBOX secure?

Yes. 100%.

Every month, we transfer your LOQBOX Funds into a ring fenced, independently verified, client account with Lloyds Bank. Your LOQBOX Funds in this account are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (“FSCS”) up to £85,000.

Can I unlock my LOQBOX early?

Yes, whenever you want!

You can unlock your LOQBOX at any time to release your savings. This means that we buy it back from you for the same amount you originally bought it for, using the proceeds to automatically settle any outstanding balance on your finance before returning every penny of your savings to you.

Perhaps the biggest downside is that punters don't get any interest on the money locked away in their LOQBOX for twelve months. But it's a better option than throwing away £71.40 on CashPlus' CreditBuilder.

Not many people know that you can get a CashPlus account that doesn't have a monthly fee and offers free ATM withdrawals by using this MoneySuperMarket link. There's a £5.95 fee to open the account, but that is more than off-set with a free tenner if you add £50 to your new account. :rotfl:

cjmillsnun · 6 January 2018 at 1:23PM

TBQH a credit card and a mobile phone contract will do enough to get your credit file on a sound footing. Keep what you've got (but don't do any more with shop direct, you really can do better than them). Pay off the credit cards in full each time, pay the loan every single month and you should be golden.

Cashplus Credit Builder Question

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