Q&A about credit ratings with Caroline Thomas from Experian CreditExpert

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This week Caroline Thomas from Experian CreditExpert is returning to Mumsnet to answer your questions on credit ratings.

If you want to know what affects your credit rating and how you can improve it, advice on identity fraud or tips on how to manage your credit report to improve your chances of getting accepted for the best deals, send your questions to Caroline before the end of Monday 5 November and we'll be linking to her answers from this thread on Tuesday 13 November.

Your credit rating is not just for loans, mortgages or credit cards. Phone contracts, landlords and other providers will base decisions on it. Your credit report therefore shouldn't be something you turn to only when you're declined for a credit card or loan, it should be something you manage on an on-going basis, as part of good financial housekeeping. And with just eight weeks until Christmas, you may not be able to make sweeping changes to your credit rating, but there are some simple things you can do in that time to make it as high as possible.

New customers can sign up now for a *free 30-day trial of CreditExpert, giving you unlimited access to your Experian Credit Score, weekly alerts of changes to your credit report, web monitoring alerts and access to their customer services team. You can also get more tips at www.facebook.com/ExperianUK

*New members only. Monthly fee applies after free trial. Free trial period starts on registration - further ID verification may be required to access full service, which may take up to five days.

My credit rating says very good but i still can't get credit. I was refused a loan by 3 providers. I checked my credit report which is all clear. dh has bad credit, does this effect me even if it is a single application?

Also I have been trying to cancel my report for ages. You can never get through on the phone. Why won't you accept cancellations by email?

Hello Caroline, and welcome to MN.

We recently moved back to UK after 20 years of living abroad. To say that it has been a nightmare would be understating it. I was very close to giving up and going back to Germany.

We could not get:

a credit card
a mortgage
a mobile phone contract
an overdraft (not that we needed one)

or any kind of credit.

We were told, 'you need to have credit to get credit' but that is impossible when no one will give you credit.

The turning point was when we bought a car, and that was only possible due to the extreme tenacity of the sales manager at the car dealership who fought her credit department to get us the loan.

We were then lucky that our bank gave us a mortgage (although we had to put down a larger than usual deposit).

We did all the right things eg. got on electoral roll, paid for things via direct debit etc and now have a mortgage and a mobile phone contract. We still cannot get a credit card or an overdraft.

When we tried to register with Experian for a credit check, we found that to register we'd need a credit card, which of course we didn't have (and still don't have). I think we could have sent the application by post or something but tbh, by that point I was in tears of frustration and walked away.

I know from other returning expats that this is a common problem. During our years abroad we had a UK bank account but no credit card etc.

My question is: Why is it so bloody difficult? And is there anything that we could have done to make the process easier?

And have you any idea why our bank would give us a mortgage to buy a house but not a £100 overdraft?

Another one who woud very much like to cancel her credit report, as said above it is impossible to get through on the phone and I can't even see my report anyway as when i try to log in it says my account is locked and I need to call, you do however manage to keep taking my money every month even though I have a new card with a different expiry date on it!

I'm getting to the point where DP and I are trying to begin to save for a deposit on a house. To do this we're doing lots of boring life admin to sort out our credit rating.

One of the credit rating issues I have is that I cancelled my O2 contract back in April. The last payment came out of my account and I then cancelled the direct debit when I saw it had left my account. For some reason the money was then taken back from O2 by my bank without me asking for my bank to do this. Without my knowledge my details were then passed on to a debt collection agency, and a mark was put on my credit file by O2 - I only owed about £15, which I then payed straight away when I realised the error.

I read that O2 can remove this marker as a goodwill gesture if you had been a loyal customer - I was with them for almost 15 years. They refused to do this, they said this wasn't ever possible.

I've also read of others in the same position who have then been refused a mortgage because of these markers - specifically by O2. I'm a little bit scared that this might happen, I don't want to lose out on getting a home because of £15.

What can I do to remove this marker? Or is there anything I can do to improve my credit rating?

Why can't I access my credit report, even an edited version, for a one-off look for a one-off charge? Why does a credit reference agency insist on getting people to sign up forever even though almost no-one wants to do that (and see comments above re difficulty of cancelling - I don't even have a phone so won't sign up to any service requiring use of one!)

I'm interested to know if you can ever repair bad credit rating. I am with a debt management company and will be debt free in four years. Will I ever be considered a good credit risk again?

Reading with interest...Noidles I had the same thing happen to me with Orange and I emailed the CEO and was put through to the executive help team who agreed to take the mark off my file.

The CEO of O2 is Ronan Dunne, his email address is [email protected] and his twitter account is twitter

Orange fan your credit file is cleared after 6 years. My dh has a ccj. It isn't paid but doesn't appear on his file anymore. Some people declare themselves bankrupt every 6 years and start again afresh. Not that I'm suggesting that.

StrawberrytallCAKE WOW! That's amazing. Thanks so much for your help.

Would be good to know from Experian though what else I can do specifically to help me with my quest to get a mortgage.

I have always had a 'perfect' credit file. For a series of various reasons mainly due to my irregular (but healthy) freelance income I don't have any household utilities paid from my account - they all go from my husband's. I have a credit card which i pay off in full every month, and a mobile phone but that's it. Is this going to be affecting my credit rating?

DH and I are happy managing our money the way we do but we could if necessary open a joint account and move all the bill dds to that - would that help my credit rating?

Hi Caroline.

I would appreciate some advice on the following:

My exp and I split 2.5yrs ago. We co-own a house together which I live in and pay the mortgage on. He has now moved to another country but has not notified any of the relevant people that he no longer lives here. In the past I have had bailiffs looking for him for non payment of car tax etc.

Following his recent holiday back in the UK, bailiff letters and telephone calls have started, from companies looking for him due to non payment. Things like his old mobile service provider, credit card company, bank etc.

There is no point talking to him about any of this, he was abusive, I stopped contact between him and dd, he doesn't pay maintenance, mortgage, any related costs etc.

But I am worried about the affect all this may have on my credit rating. I have at times not eaten in order to pay bills and keep my record clear. And I feel that he is just going to wreck it without any thought. I have contacted some of the companies to say he no longer lives here but that can be fraught with wanting his new address which I don' t have and asking for him to write a letter stating that he no longer lives here.

Even if all the companies accepted my word over the telephone, will the fact that we have a mortgage together connect our credit ratings and make mine look terrible? Is there anything I can do to protect my credit rating?

Sorry for the long ramble, hope it all makes sense.

We're American expats with perfect credit in the US. Experian is one of the big credit reporting agencies in the US and in the UK. Why can't our perfect US credit reports be transferred to the UK?

I second what MmeLindor said - as an adult in my late 30s I returned to the UK after more than a decade overseas, with bank accounts (international banks) in good standing in the UK and overseas, and substantial assets, but was unable to get a credit card for three years and was turned down for a £10/month phone contract, because the 'computer says no'.

Surely there must be some way of exchanging credit information between international financial institutions in the 21st century?

My exh left over 5 years ago. Thanks to his debt being linked to mine I'll never have a good credit rating again. So what is the point when I have never been tardy in payments or had a credit card or taken out a loan yet I can be held financially to ransom by an exh?

Credit ratings are just another way of sticking it to people who try their best.

(Oh and I did all the "financially distancing" thing or whatever it is called, I have notes on my credit rating thing but it doesn't matter because it is all controlled by machine and when the computer says no there are no humans able to think for themselves.)

I tried to get a new mobile phone, on contract, last week at Carphone Warehouse but my credit check was refused and they suggested I look at Experian; I did this and found that my score was 999, Excellent, as I thought it would be. So why would I be refused on this basis? I haven't had a loan or used a credit card in the last six years - is it true that this puts some companies off? Also, will the fact that CW refused me (for no apparent reason) now make my credit report worse? Thanks.

Hi Caroline

I had my identity stolen in 2001. I found out in 2008, after applying for a credit card. I have never had any form of credit at all. It took ages but finally was all sorted and a note was placed on my credit file.

However, I have still been unable to apply successfully for any form of credit, mobile phone, cards anything. I have been with my bank (Nat West) for over ten years and started with a junior account at that time, in April this year they changed the rules on these accounts that I can only use their cash points. So, I asked to upgrade, as did my DP. They turned me down flat due to my being a high risk. I asked if that was to do with my ID being stolen and was told yes.

Are banks and other agencies allowed to act this way to a customer? I moved from a shared house and the next person in nicked my name, got the wrong middle name and date of birth but still got allsorts of credit in this name, I was only 19 when this occurred so didn't know about change of address forms from the Post Office. I'm now 30 and feel victimised, actually, as if I wanted my identity to be stolen!

Why does any application lowers your credit score? Considering that there are more and more services that do credit searches including utility, phone companies, morgage deals etc. Why do I need to ask them to do a quote search instead it being a default setting?

Caroline
I work in an HR dept and we regularly check candidates with experian. I wanted to check my own record and was told that if I did so it would be a black mark against me.

I assume this is incorrectg however I'd like to hear what you say about this rumour. Thank you.

notcitrus you can access a copy of your credit file for £2 from each of the three agencies, it is a statutory requirement. The Experian link is here

Equifax and CallCredit will also have links on their sites, search for £2 Statutory Report, if you can't immediately see it. These are one-off reports with no ongoing subscription.

Im currently divorcing my husband, and wonder if his credit rating will affect mine in the future? Obviously he has his own address now, but he will now have had 3 addresses in 12 months. He has business debts. I need to know that if they search under this address for his credit, that it wont affect my credit rating.

Why would an HR department check candidates? And does that go on all their files as a 'black mark'?

Thank you for all your questions. We will forward these on to Caroline and post here once her answers are back.

Thanks Easy. May actually make use of that.
Though it implies you don't get to see the credit score they calculate, without signing up for the ongoing thing.