Credit reference agencies

AMBERSHADOW · 21 May 2016 at 3:47PM

HI All

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post..

Which Credit reference agencies are the best?

I subscribe to both Experian and Equifax But I am finding that both scores Don't match..

Experian is showing Good But Equifax is poor? does anyone know why? they both have same things on them..

No court judgements, no defaults.. all payments upto date?

poppasmurf_bewdley · 21 May 2016 at 4:43PM

Scores from any CRA mean nothing. As you have found out, they can't even agree with each other. They were invented to provide an income for the CRA's.

Each lender scores in their own way. They only use the CRA's to see your Credit File, not your so-called score, which in reality does not exist.

Save your money and cancel your subscriptions, and apply for the standard £2 Credit Report when you need to.

sourcrates · 21 May 2016 at 4:44PM

Best for what ?

Credit score ?

It's just a made up meaningless number, this question is asked so often on here.

Lending decisions are never made on this made up number alone, the CRA's use it to sell you credit improvement products, it's the way they make there money.

AMBERSHADOW · 21 May 2016 at 6:46PM

Thank you, I thought this was how you are searched for credit?

I also though if they go to Equifax I have no chance for anything...

sourcrates · 21 May 2016 at 7:03PM

AMBERSHADOW wrote: »

Thank you, I thought this was how you are searched for credit?

I also though if they go to Equifax I have no chance for anything...

Common mis-conception amongst the general populous.

Credit scores are made up numbers, they are supposed to give an idea of how the CRA views you, not how potential lenders view you.

To have the best chance of been accepted for credit, simply do common sense things like paying bills on time, don't pay late, don't default, have a regular address, be on the electoral role, just Common sense things really, credit scores have no part whatsoever in deciding if credit is granted to you or not.

fatbelly · 21 May 2016 at 7:45PM

For accuracy of information, in my opinion, Experian are the best, followed by Equifax. Callcredit are a distant third.

As others have said, scores mean nothing - just a tool thought up by their marketing departments.

AMBERSHADOW · 22 May 2016 at 4:41PM

sourcrates wrote: »

Common mis-conception amongst the general populous.

Credit scores are made up numbers, they are supposed to give an idea of how the CRA views you, not how potential lenders view you.

To have the best chance of been accepted for credit, simply do common sense things like paying bills on time, don't pay late, don't default, have a regular address, be on the electoral role, just Common sense things really, credit scores have no part whatsoever in deciding if credit is granted to you or not.

Thank you so much for your help

Dird · 23 May 2016 at 12:00PM

Equifax are complete garbage. Some mistakes they've made in the last year with me:
- Direct Debits linked to me that were my dad's (same name). 1 had occassional missed payments so probably negatively affected me. Argued for over 1 year for them to be removed, still don't know if they have as I refuse to pay for their rubbish. 1 account was started when I was 6 years old but logic fails them.
- Still chasing this problem, they recently recommended I buy a new report to find out whether the Direct Debits still exist or not!
- My mom as a financial link despite no shared finance, luckily they quickly resolved this
- My mom's first name & my surname + "Mrs" as an alias for myself. Apparently a bug with ClearScore that wouldn't show on Experian itself

Surrey_G · 23 May 2016 at 2:06PM

I can only back up what others have said. I recently went through a stage if being sukered in by the credit reference agencies also. I notice my equifax score had gone down and could see no reason for this . the host of reasons given were absolutely comical from its the area that you live in to you have paid off to much and don't have enough credit... the last one was nonsense as I had simply paid out what I always paid each month. The then irritated operator admitted that the score I see has no relevance to the lender as they have their own criteria and they do not use the same info as equifax do when arriving at their conclusions... There was much more to it but that is the gist. I have now saved almost £45 a month by not subscribing to equifax, call quick and experian and quite simply I laugh at noddle who do not seem to be able to keep the same information on file from one moth to the next. These companies are no better than scam artists who prey on people wants for a better future by making suggestive proclamations of a brighter financial outlook if you sign up to them forever... In addition how slow is the equifax website..!

sourcrates · 23 May 2016 at 3:05PM

Surrey_G wrote: »

I have now saved almost £45 a month by not subscribing to equifax, call quick and experian and quite simply I laugh at noddle who do not seem to be able to keep the same information on file from one moth to the next. These companies are no better than scam artists who prey on people wants for a better future by making suggestive proclamations of a brighter financial outlook if you sign up to them forever... In addition how slow is the equifax website..!

Credit reference agencies are businesses, and, like any other business, needs to make money.

But all they sell is information, and second hand information at that, so they have to market themselves like any other business would do, and the only way they can do that is to make you think buying there products will make your life better.

So they make up this number and assign one to everybody, the number then fluctuates as and when they see fit, using whatever logarithmic programs they use, obviously people with lower scores, who are not wise to the "game" want to know why there score is that low, so they buy whatever credit improvement product the CRA is selling.

I dare say they pocket money from other sources as well, DCA`s for example, who get an alert, whenever a debtor checks there credit file, and I have no doubt they sell or pass on information to other 3rd parties as well.

GibbsRule_No3 · 24 May 2016 at 7:45AM

If they mean nothing can someone tell me the answer to what happened to me yesterday? I went to open a Santander 123, I have over £20,000 to pay in, six DDs to pay out, pay and two pensions going in each month with more than £700 left after the "going out" monthly payments. Gentleman was looking very pleased until he did the search and it came back with a "non acceptance", I did not want credit, just somewhere to get a good interest rate. I thought it would happen when the search was done because I had finished a DMP two years ago, all paid back but of course Experian show the marker that for awhile I defaulted the monthly payment, so it took longer to pay off. If the gentleman had just been able to accept me on his own without the computer search he said he would of happily accepted me with those figures. Computer say No! He said I can try writing to the bank to get the marker removed and then reapply with the letters, then a human being might make the choice rather than the computer but it has to be removed from the search first.

Credit reference agencies

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