What your credit score really means

I'm responding to the original sticky rather than any specific post.
In my opinion credit scores are useless as banks and BS "have their own rating systems" anyway. They have more to do with their commercial reasons than your own creditworthiness.

Here's my experience. As a long-term customer of a major BS with current account, credit card, cash ISA and savings accounts etc. all with them for most of the past 15+ years, I had my credit card suspended without notice a year ago. When I received their letter, it had already been cancelled! The alleged reason was there was "a risk I'd be unable to repay my debts" (which was under £10 at that point). I have always been a model borrower: no defaults or arrears on mortgage or any other credit repayments ever, no current loans except a monthly 1K balance on another credit card always paid in full and occasionally using 0% money transfers, so with a checkable history. The BS offered no other explanation and referred me to Experian, allegedly the source they relied on. This was later described as "incorrect advice" as the "decision was irreversible" all along and the BS offered a £25 compensation. My Experian score was 995, the only blemish being a CCJ entered through clerical error and for a trivial matter (I successfully sued an airline for compensation) which I raised with the court and had subsequently removed by Experian. The BS wasn't interested, referring to "their own credit rating system". Now with a score of 999 I turned to the Ombudsman. After months of changing their story the BS ended up claiming the CCJ (made btw 3 years earlier) was the trigger for their decision. The Ombudsman didn't uphold my complaint as the provider was "entitled to suspend an account for commercial reasons without giving a reason". I had suspected all along that this was a commercial decision, but did not accept the O's ruling because the provider DID give a reason, but one that was totally fabricated and also had acted without giving me a 2-months' notice which under their own T&Cs applies to cases where there no reason is given. So even with the O's involvement, the BS got away with a draconian decision made on false pretences affecting a customer with a 999 credit score.
PS Fully aware of this, the BS subsequently offered to restore my credit card! Needless to say, I was no longer interested.

It may do. It may go up or down, but it doesn't matter.

What will show on your file is the searches and the new Barclaycard account.

No, it's not.

MrsM just opened a new Tesco current account, no OD and no searches showing. Her Noddle score has gone down by 10 pts and her overall rating down to 4/5. So because she has opened a current account she is less credit worthy in their eyes even though it has already reported a green dot !