Checking your own credit rating

[presta]

if the score is the difference between getting a loan, a mortgage or renting a property or not, it doesn't matter what the algorithm is. Lenders and letting agents will only be looking at the score.

Well yes, but you can't see what you've done to lose marks, or how quickly bad marks lapse.

 

[figbat]

Years ago I used an introductory free trial to check my credit rating. I was expecting it to be perfect, and it was, so I cancelled the trial and haven’t been back since.

 

[MontyVeda]

Well yes, but you can't see what you've done to lose marks, or how quickly bad marks lapse.

i think that's why there's a monthly subscription on Experian... it shows your rating in much more detail, apparently.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

Well yes, but you can't see what you've done to lose marks

Mine has a section called ‘Key factors since last update’, which tells you that sort of info.

 

[fossyant]

The reports are sometimes a little out of data as the various agencies take some time to update. I've no mortgage now, but could improve my score if I got one - no ta. Mine is excellent. It does show things like my Utilities, the Vodafone 'loan' for my phone, but that's about it. You can see which organisations are showing, and some stop sharing data. Useful to check and see nothing un-toward has gone on - e.g. hard credit searches.

 

[presta]

It does show things like my Utilities, the Vodafone 'loan' for my phone, but that's about it. You can see which organisations are showing, and some stop sharing data.

Lloyds?

I'm with Lloyds too, but all I got was a score out of 710, and no other info other than a categorisation of 'excellent'.

 

[fossyant]

Lloyds?

I'm with Lloyds too, but all I got was a score out of 710, and no other info other than a categorisation of 'excellent'.

Lloyds one is limited, clear score gives some more info

 

[yello]

Back in the day, I used to work for the other lot - Equifax. In league with the devil imho but it paid well. And I could walk to work. So every cloud etc. I digress.

The biggest factor in personal credit rating (then, it may have changed) was being on the electoral roll, and having an address that could be verified and for over x months/years - the longer the better. Payment histories (credit cards, loan repayments, household bills, etc) would be used only where those details were provided by the companies involved - and not every company did. So you could have an abysmal payment history with some company or other and the credit reference agencies may not know about it, so it wouldn't feature as part of the rating calc. I'm guessing Experian worked similarly. The exact credit rating calculation was a bit black box in truth but the rating that Equifax/Experian calculated and provided (to credit card companies, lenders etc) may or may not be used by them in deciding whether to give you a loan/credit card/whatever.

Edit: oh, and sharing an address with someone (or having the same address as someone, a former resident for example) who has a bad credit rating could have an effect on your rating too - but you can get a disassociation by speaking to the whichever credit reference co.

 

[MontyVeda]

...

Edit: oh, and sharing an address with someone (or having the same address as someone, a former resident for example) who has a bad credit rating could have an effect on your rating too - but you can get a dissociation by speaking to the whichever credit reference co.

this is my concern as I'm in an HMO the utility bills are shared equally between three flats with one meter in the cellar. I pay my third promptly. Another tenant always dawdles in paying their third which could potentially affect my credit rating, which is why i had a look at checking.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

if the score is the difference between getting a loan, a mortgage or renting a property or not, it doesn't matter what the algorithm is. Lenders and letting agents will only be looking at the score.

Apaprently they don;t look at the score

they look at the data and work out their own rating

and the rating they come up with varies depending on the purpose

so in some cases some missed payments several years ago will be seen as important
in other cases they will be ignored

and they don;t tell you what data they look at or how important each bit is to them

or that is what I heard on a programme talking about such stuff on the telly

 

[vickster]

My TransUnion one through NatWest app is pretty detailed, tells me exactly what is impacting positively and a bit less so (like when I whacked a chunk of the cost of the new roof on a credit card and maxed it out!)

 

[gbb]

After getting curious some years ago and looking at my credit rating, I came to the conclusion unless you're
A. Looking where youre lacking with a view to improve your rating for whatever reason or..
B. Making sure you have no defaults etc...

There wasn't much point in it really if you don't need to know the above.

We've managed perfectly well being blissfully unaware...

 

[kynikos]

Edit: oh, and sharing an address with someone (or having the same address as someone, a former resident for example) who has a bad credit rating could have an effect on your rating too - but you can get a dissociation by speaking to the whichever credit reference co.

this is my concern as I'm in an HMO the utility bills are shared equally between three flats with one meter in the cellar. I pay my third promptly. Another tenant always dawdles in paying their third which could potentially affect my credit rating, which is why i had a look at checking.

Credit scores are personal. Merely sharing an address with someone will not affect your credit score; you need to have a joint account before it impacts. So late payment of the bill will affect only those named on the bill - if it's in only one of your names it will affect them only, whoever it is. If it's in joint/all three of your names then all those named will be affected. And, in the unlikely event it's in your landlord's, you'll all be off the hook.

 

[yello]

Merely sharing an address with someone will not affect your credit score

It most certainly could in my days at Equifax, but we are talking 15 odd years ago so maybe the scoring model is more sophisticated now (and I would certainly hope so!) As I say, filing a notice of disassociation for that very reason was a thing.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

It most certainly could in my days at Equifax, but we are talking 15 odd years ago so maybe the scoring model is more sophisticated now (and I would certainly hope so!) As I say, filing a notice of disociation for that very reason was a thing.

I think there was some sort of legal ruling on the subject
it was a while ago but I seem to remember reading about it

on another point
I used to work for a large Home Shopping company and they had access to Equifax
(I wrote the system that allowed it - lets hope they have improved the security of that connection by now - but it was a long time ago!!)
and the data from Equifax was always taken with a pince of salt and analysed in their own way in combination with data from otehr places - including internally
The internal data was thought to be far far more useful than Equifax at the time!