Hi, I reguarly monitor my credit score on Credit Expert from Experian and it has recently been around the 750 mark - fair to good. Imagine my horror when I logged in today and was quoted 338 - Very Poor. So low I'm almost off the scale. Nothing in my circumstances has changed since the 750, no searches, missed payments etc. I phoned Experian and their Advisor told me that last week they changed the way they calculate your score. Apparently due to market conditions being as they are with the credit crunch and everything they now take the amount of outstanding debt you have into consideration. So before if you had say 25K debt but you'd never missed a payment, they were all up to date, you'd been on the electoral roll for years, no ccjs or defaults etc. you would still get a very good score but now the 25K is deemed excessive and your score is now considered poorer than poor. Just wondered if anybody else had been caught out like this?

To be honest this is overdue. How someone can have a credit score of 980 out of a 1000 when they already have several credit cards at their limit and various loans is a mystery to me.

If it's any conciliation banks have been going by the outstanding debt criteria all year. In reality, it probably won't effect who will give you money.

OH MY GOD is that a joke.... Iv only checked my report once as im not sure if it affects your score checking it all the time???

Last time i looked mine was 766 out of 1000 which i thought was pretty good.

It has no affect no matter how many time you check it, it's when credit companies check up on you.

phew... least i can keep an eye on it!!

I just went on and checked and its a totally different layout which looks loads better but it says i can't get my credit score as the site is being reviewed.... it does say im using 48% of my borrowing facility - do you think this is good or bad??

thanks,

I guess it depends on what you have borrowed it on. If it's credit card debts etc i would say that's quite a big percentage but if you have a mortgage then it would be quite good!

I have about £2,000 on credit cards and catalougue's the rest would be my mortgage and unsecured loan on the house.... with any luck this will be seen as good!!

This money malarky sure is mind boggling!!!

x

HI Megane as far as I am aware the percentage does not include mortgages or defaults

K

I'm with the not-before-time posse.

Well my credit score yesterday was 760 ( which is classed as fair) which i expected as although i don't have much debt. I have a total of £1800 as soon as i pay anything off my card i tend to buy something else. Yeah i know i'm an idiot!

What has shocked me is that i applied for a car loan from a car supermarket place last night. i haven't heard from them as yet but thought i'd check my credit rating to see if the have applied to anyone as yet. Well! there are 8 searches that have happened today all from this one car supermarket to differnt banks and loan companys and now my credt score is 576. i'm assuming as they have searched so many times these companys have said no to me and this is probably why there not in a rush to cal me back!

No new car for me then and no chance of asking anyone else as my rating has plumeted from bad to worse.

Wait 3 months then try again BUT don't go to a car supermarket, go to a reputable dealer who would only deal with one poss two finance companies. Some of these car supermarkets don't score well themselves and that can go against the customer, sometimes lenders will reject because of the rate etc the dealers charge, it can get really complicated so you are best to avoid them. People think they are getting bargains but when you add everything up, the apr etc, turns out you dont get the bargain you expected. Go to a dealership near the end of a month when the salesmen want to meet their targets and you can haggle with the price the rate and any part exchange you may have.

Ok thanks for your advise. i do really want to get a brand new civic with the lease style terms where you swap the car every 3 years but the payments are quite a bit of money and although i can afford it now im a bit worried with all the news in the papers saying we are going into recession snd how this may affect it in the future.

I recieved a phone call from the company and they said i wasn't accepted for credit from any of there main finance companys (8 main companys seems quite a few to me) But i would be guarenteed finance from there sister company. I'm taking that to be a company like the ones you see in the adverts where the apr is in the 30% mark. which even i'm not crazy enough to agree to.

i went direct to citreon last weekend and bought a car, i was lookin at a personal contract plan but decided to do part purchase, in that after 3 years i hand it back and get a guaranteed final value fee to use for the next car.

brand new car, full warranty, no MOt required and £35 a year tax.

Id never go to one of those supermarket types.