Credit Rating

[longers]

Should I worry about mine?

I don't and probably never will, so that answers my question really but there's these little ads that pop up on the interweb all over the place "Check your Credit Rating etc".

If I do one, it's free, they must be trying to sell me something right?

Are they credible, are they even relevant?

I won't be borrowing any money at all in the foreseeable, I can't remember any bad debts - assuming Student Loans Inc have wiped the slate clean.

There's no harm in doing one is there? But should I place any relevance on the findings or lack of them?

 

[stoatsngroats]

No - don't worry about them...

It's a ploy to get some monthly membership from you. It's interesting to learn what info they have on you, but not worth £5 or so a month.....

 

[longers]

. . . . £5 or so a month.....

Thread closed . . . . . Thanks for looking.

 

[Noodley]

Yes these things are pointless.

 

[Gromit]

Credit expert lets you sign up for 30 days without charging, and then you cancel it. I joined one after paying off a debt, I wanted to check if they had put satisfied on it.

 

[Kirstie]

My other half uses these things to check on the credit ratings of the business he deals with - it's served him well in the past. I suppose the only thing they could be useful for is to check for dodgy credit applications in case you've had your credit card details ripped off or something like that.

 

[yello]

Imo, there's little point in taking a membership thingy on it. As stoatsngroats says, it's just the referencing agencies looking for a 'revenue stream'.

For £2.50 (or thereabouts) you can ask Experian/Equifax (the 2 big credit referencing agencies in the UK) to provide you with the information they have on you by post - this will give you the info that they give to lenders etc to provide a credit score. It's the law, they have to do but it's not something they blazon across their websites!

It's import to note though that Experian/Exquifax don't decide whether to give you a credit card/loan/mortgage etc. That's the lenders themselves that do that, and they do not have to tell you why or how. They'll just refer you to Experian/Equifax.

The biggest single factor for credit rating is the electoral roll; if you're on that (at the address you apply for you loan/card/credit from) then that's the single biggest plus you can get. Then, if you have a couple of loans or credit cards already and have a good payment record on them, then that's good to. Also, phone/mobile bills.

If you can tick all of those boxes then chances are you've got a decent credit rating.

Sometimes, there can be a problem if someone at your address (wife/brother/parent) has a poor rating - this can impact on you, but you can file what's called a 'Notice of Dissociation' to sort that.

 

[Shaun]

I'd never bothered about it either until recently when 3 refused me a Nokia N96 (£15 p.m. contract) phone blaming my credit rating.

I've always been good with credit, never defaulted on anything, etc. and got a bit incensed at the idea.

I asked them why they'd refused me and they said it was nothing to do with them, it was the credit reference agency they used - Experian. The 3 sales person said I should ask Experian why they'd refused me, so that's what I decided to do.

I popped onto the Experian web site and filled in all the info for the free credit check, which, whilst interesting, didn't actually give you your credit score!

The score is what they use wen advising retailers etc. so because I was so mad about the whole thing I decided to pay £6 for the full report, including the all important score. (In signing up for the full report, you are also automatically enrolled into the monthly credit checking program at around £5 per month - so don't forget to cancel your Experian account if you don't want to stay.)

The score itself ranges from around 600 points to a maximum 999. My score? 993 - Excellent!!!

I called 3 back and tried again telling them I had an excellent credit score and was again refused, and again advised that Experian will have told them (3) that I was a bad credit risk.

This prompted me to call Experian as I couldn't understand how they could report an Excellent cfredit rating, then tell 3 to refuse me the phone.

After 10 mins on the phone with Experian I found out that they (Experian) never actually tell a retailer whether or not to do business with someone, they only report on the score and other details on the credit report such as current debt a person has on their books.

The lady at Experian then asked, "Are you, by any chance, trying to get an expensive mobile phone on a really cheap monthly contract?"

"Erm, yes" I said.

"I thought so", she said. "We get a lot of this. The phone companies seem to oversell the offers and then blame people's credit as a reason for not offering customers the deal."

I decided to have one last go and called 3 back. After half an hour taking to another sales person, and trying, but failing to speak to a manager, I was told I would need to speak to their credit control department. I asked for the phone number, but they didn't have one. Email address? No, sorry. I'd need to write to the credit team at a postal address. "In this modern day of telephones and email, I can only write to them?" - yes. (A well developed tactic for putting people off the scent no doubt! Especailly as you couldn't expect a reply in less than a week!).

Their loss. I bought the phone elsewhere and am now both assured of my credit worthiness, and assured that 3 won't be getting any of my money anytime soon.

The thing is, if they'd said to me, right at the off, "Sorry, we've suspended that offer due to oversubscription ..." I could have accepted that and it would have saved a great deal of agro.

Cheers,
Shaun

PS. Oh yes, forgot to mention, 3 don't even use Experian for credit checks - Experian confirmed they'd had no enquiries from 3 - but it seems that they train all of their sales staff to say so, and none of the sales staff could tell me who they actually do use!!

 

[Speicher]

Slightly off topic, but the people who replied on here might have the answer.

One day last week, I seem to have upset someone. Yes, I know, difficult to believe! Any way, long story short, I noticed that as I got in my car they decided to take a note of my car registration number.

In what way does this help them? Can anyone just look up my name and address if they have the car reg number? I thought only the Police could do that?

 

[purplepolly]

I won't be borrowing any money at all in the foreseeable, I can't remember any bad debts - assuming Student Loans Inc have wiped the slate clean.

I think you're going about this the wrong way - you get a good credit rating by having loans or credit cards and paying them off on time. The worst thing of all for your cedit rating is not to have a loan or credit card so if you're ever likely to need a loan or a mortgage it's best to plan ahead and keep using a credit card.

 

[purplepolly]

Any way, long story short, I noticed that as I got in my car they decided to take a note of my car registration number.

In what way does this help them? Can anyone just look up my name and address if they have the car reg number? I thought only the Police could do that?

I sometimes read the reg out load to memorise it, usually when drivers try to run me or someone else over on a pedestrian crossing. Mostly I do it just to wind them up but today I got fed up and put it on a website for reporting bad drivers.

Of course, the other person could work for the police or dvla or know someone who does. Try googling your reg later and see if anyone has reported it online.

 

[Speicher]

The "upset" was not caused by my driving. It was after I returned to my car after our "discussion" that he took the reg number.

 

[cheadle hulme]

Experian (and Equifax and CallCredit) don't hold credit scores as such. They collect and facilitate the sharing of data between lenders. This is known as CAIS, credit account information sharing as is sometimes referred to as "keys". You can have a white "key" when you make a payment on time or a black "key" should you miss a payment.

Companies suply data on a monthly basis and in return get access to the full data set, ostensibly for fraud prevention.

The data is also sold as a credit checking service. Companies will either use the data in their own risk models to enable decisions or use an off the shelf index provided by the credit agency. The 600 -999 score referred to by Shaun is Experians own version.

Any decision on credit lies with the lender rather than the credit agency.

 

[yello]

they (Experian) never actually tell a retailer whether or not to do business with someone, they only report on the score and other details on the credit report such as current debt a person has on their books.

Yep, that's what I said above ^^^^^

Experian's credit score (Equifax's too for that matter) really doesn't mean much to anyone else. There's no standard for credit scoring and it's just the credit reference agency's way of giving you some idea of whether they think your credit worthiness is good or bad etc. Lenders taking data from Experian/Equifax may or may not use the score, they may not even want to see it - many have their own scoring model... and they are under no obligation to tell you how they score you.

I used to work for Equifax and have direct, hands-on experience of the data they collect and what they do with it.

 

[bonj2]

hwoever shoot your credit rating you will always regain it.
I had a shoot credit rating, couldn't get a bank account. Now it appears to have returned, as i have got a bank account 3 credit cards and amortgage. I think if you have a mortgage and pay it off every month that actually improves your credit rating.

companies that offer to check your credit rating for a fee aren't worth bothering with, they may even be scams.
Neither really even are the experian service, the internet based one is shite, they try and get you to join some subscription service and it's crap.
You want to pretend you know nothing about the internet, send them a cheque for £10 or whatever it is, get the paper version, then write and reuqest amendments if there's anybody who's nothing to do with you, sign and send back.
If there's nobody of that nature, then you can't improve it.