Experian. How do they get away with it.?

[Brads67]

How does a private company get a mandate from the Govt to be the go to ref agency for credit companies etc, then be able to put whatever they feel like on your report (yes they do) which then badly affects your day to day life, then when you try and do something about it they demand money from you to even talk about it.?

Utter , utter pain the the arse.

A company holds info which can adversely affect you and yet you have to pay to be able to do something about it.


Anyone else hate them like I do?.

[Chozza]

What data is wrong?

They normally just consolidate data from lenders banks etc.

If it's data from one of these..then contact the provider direct

[Brads67]

At the moment I don't know but am guessing my "never had credit " wife is associated and affecting the rating .
This was the case before and I virtually had to threaten court to get it sorted.

They make you apply for a report, then make you wait for it, then refuse to discuss it with you except by email.

And while I'm at it, how can they use unsecured credit to rate you when they do not know your income ?

[akirk]

https://www.experian.co.uk/consumer/experian-credi...

their website said:

You can either request your credit history via a basic statutory report for free, or new customers can sign up to a free trial of CreditExpert which will include your Experian Credit Score, fraud monitoring and alerts, and tailored guidance on how to improve how lenders see you.

Brads67 said:

And while I'm at it, how can they use unsecured credit to rate you when they do not know your income ?

they don't - they present information to lenders etc. who have their own way of using the data that is presented - think of it more as a clearing house or data repository... the potential lender will score you according to their internal algorithms which are likely to include information from you on your income...

all the fluff on Experian (the chart / score showing how good your credit is / the way they suggest possible loans etc.) is just that - they use the basics in the same way as a lender, but have no way of predicting what the lender might decide

[Jakg]

Brads67 said:

And while I'm at it, how can they use unsecured credit to rate you when they do not know your income ?

Experian don't rate you, the lenders do. Their "credit score" is marketing rubbish.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/credit-rat...

[anonymous-user]

My account got associated with an ex fellow director. They spelt his name wrong. I filled in the forms to have it removed. No responses. They haven’t done it. I agree they’re rogues who won’t correct stuff or reply.

[Brads67]

I thought more s than rogues , but yes.

[Brads67]

Jakg said:

Experian don't rate you, the lenders do. Their "credit score" is marketing rubbish.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/credit-rat...

I get that , but the lenders rates you according to whatever ste experian deems fit to stick on your report.

Try using a lender that does not use experian and see how much better the deal can be..

Last time I fought with them they rated me as 800 or "fair" , after telling them what was wrong with their report, they instantly upped it to 999 out of 999.

Total bullst.

[untakenname]

Noticed today that my rating has gone from 999/999 'excellent' to 972/1250 'good'.

Can't dig deeper as to why it's gone down on the free tier, wonder why it's now out of 1250 instead of 999?

I've got no debt bar mortgage and nothing untoward has happened within the past year as far as I know.

[AndyAudi]

untakenname said:

Noticed today that my rating has gone from 999/999 'excellent' to 972/1250 'good'.

Can't dig deeper as to why it's gone down on the free tier, wonder why it's now out of 1250 instead of 999?

I've got no debt bar mortgage and nothing untoward has happened within the past year as far as I know.

Last time mine took a little dip it was last year after Christmas & the purchase of two holidays,,,

Apparently using above a certain percentage of your credit limit - regardless of the fact you pay it off in full each month drops you a bit - my free report from the bank suggests I apply for a higher limit on my card to reduce impact of borrowing within my limit

[geeks]

untakenname said:

Noticed today that my rating has gone from 999/999 'excellent' to 972/1250 'good'.

Can't dig deeper as to why it's gone down on the free tier, wonder why it's now out of 1250 instead of 999?

I've got no debt bar mortgage and nothing untoward has happened within the past year as far as I know.

https://www.experian.co.uk/consumer/1250-score.html

[Panamax]

untakenname said:

wonder why it's now out of 1250 instead of 999?

Must be their new "Spinal Tap" software.

[kiethton]

Often a lag of 2-4 months too.

We recently remortgaged to another lender, my score across Experian and others dropped this month as it thinks I now have 2 mortgages outstanding...

[RacingStripes]

When the 1250 first came in a "dropped" (as I was 999) to 1225. Its just gone back up to 1250. Im not paying to find out why.

[Countdown]

Credit scores are a strange thing. For a start they don't seem to take into account the difference between your income and what you spend each month or how much you save. So somebody saving £5k a month wouldn't necessarily score more points than somebody who spends everything they earn. Having no loans seems to count against you as does having too many loans even if you have sufficient income to cover the payments.

Both my wife and I have decent incomes, no mortgages, no finance of any kind, grown-up kids, lots of investments and yet I believe my Transunion score was just "good". I know that apparently using MORE credit increases the score but I would have thought spending £3k a month on my credit card would help with that.

Anyway...just curious

[Terminator X]

If they have something wrong then write to them and get them to update their reports.

I've done that before when I was in a bust up with a company who claimed I owed them money vs me that said I didn't; my reports were being updated with missed payment refs. I got them to add a rider that it was disputed, which they did do.

TX.

[bloomen]

My credit score is absolutely A1 peerless top tier.

The amount of debt/ credit I have had since I was born many decades ago - £4.

Which I forgot to pay for a couple of months.

[CharlesElliott]

We don't have 'credit scores' in the UK, as they do in the US for example. As has been mentioned, in the UK the agencies collect information and supply it to those companies that you have given permission to access it, such as a bank for a loan or a mortgage. The bank - or whoever - then uses that information to determine whether your fit their lending criteria. Some lenders might be very concerned about item a and some about item b, but they get the data and they use that to make a decision.

The 'credit scores' you can get online from the agencies are just numbers that the agencies have made up based on their view of what a 'good' credit history is. It's not part of the actual decision process.

[Simpo Two]

Countdown said:

Credit scores are a strange thing. For a start they don't seem to take into account the difference between your income and what you spend each month or how much you save. So somebody saving £5k a month wouldn't necessarily score more points than somebody who spends everything they earn. Having no loans seems to count against you as does having too many loans even if you have sufficient income to cover the payments.

Both my wife and I have decent incomes, no mortgages, no finance of any kind, grown-up kids, lots of investments and yet I believe my Transunion score was just "good". I know that apparently using MORE credit increases the score but I would have thought spending £3k a month on my credit card would help with that.

Anyway...just curious

It's nothing to do with how much money you have or how quickly you pay bills, it's about how much money lenders are likely to make from you. For example as above, 'increase your credit score by asking for a higher credit limit'. Why? Because they think you'll borrow more and pay more interest.

Look at the TV adverts. Bloke gets an app, raises his credit score and now he can 'afford' a bigger car...

[DavidJJ]

Only being able to rate out of 999 must have been incredibly restrictive for them; this switch to 1250 makes perfect sense.