Experian upgrade worth it?

Minibiker

Minibiker

Minibiker

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Bristolian living in Swindon
Hi all

I'm looking to build my credit score and its gone up 170 points last month but I'm wanting to know what else to do to help it grow...

On experian it says £15 per month to get access to more info that can help, just want to know if it's worth it or is it pointless stuff really?

Many thanks
 
robfosters said:
Pointless, there’s plenty of free services about
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[FnG]magnolia said:
This comes up reasonably often, particularly the misunderstanding around credit 'score'. The short answer to your question is no it's not worth it, the longer answer is to read the very good advice on moneysavingexpert which is here
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Thank you for the replies... I'll have a read on that one. I have heard a lot of people saying credit scores are not always a sign of whether you'll get accepted for something.
 
Minibiker said:
Hi all

I'm looking to build my credit score and its gone up 170 points last month but I'm wanting to know what else to do to help it grow...

On experian it says £15 per month to get access to more info that can help, just want to know if it's worth it or is it pointless stuff really?

Many thanks
Click to expand...

It just gives you info on a pretty website and a score.

The valuable part it actually the information which you can get much more cheaply (edit: free now).

Statutory Credit Report | Experian

Your statutory credit report shows information Experian holds about you and shares with authorised lenders when they are assessing you for credit.
www.experian.co.uk www.experian.co.uk

Ignore their tickbox comparison. It makes it sound like you get nothing, but you get 95% of the info that matters.
 
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Anything relating to a mortgage, yes because the costs of failing are so gigantic. Otherwise mostly no

Dont keep a CC over 50% is one I saw recently or at least not too many, if this was about houses etc. then first task is reduce them to near zero and so on. Just repay anything and it should help, overdraft should be repaid every month not rolled over etc.
 
Have a look at creditkarma.co.uk

It tells you for free which factors are affecting your score and how to improve them. It scores out of 710, rather than Experian's 999. The number is arbitrary though, I was 999 (prior to 2 recent house moves) on Experian, but never made it to anywhere near 700 on creditkarma.
 
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silversurfer said:
Anything relating to a mortgage, yes because the costs of failing are so gigantic. Otherwise mostly no

Dont keep a CC over 50% is one I saw recently or at least not too many, if this was about houses etc. then first task is reduce them to near zero and so on. Just repay anything and it should help, overdraft should be repaid every month not rolled over etc.
Click to expand...

There's a weird sweet spot for credit. Using none of it worries lenders, and using too much terrifies them.

Make sure you're on the electoral roll - that makes a big difference.
 
Credit scores are fictional, completely made up numbers that some credit reference agencies use in order to draw people in to drum up extra cash by promising them ways to increase their score.

In reality, each lender makes a decision based on their own internal criteria, not some number from one of the reference agencies.

I wouldn't bother with statutory credit reports as you can get much more up to date information from free websites.

However, MSE credit club, Clearscore, creditkarma etc all use different credit reference agencies so you need to use multiple websites in order to get your records from Experian, Equifax and Transunion.

Checkmyfile.com gives you credit reports from all the credit reference agencies and is something like £9.99 a month after the free trial so much better value than paying Experian £15 a month.
 
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Just sign up to MSE credit club (Experian), Clearscore (Equifax) & creditkarma (TransUnion). Using all 3 covers the 3 main credit reference agencies and they are all free. No need to pay £15.99 or even £9.99 for checkmyfile.
 
Do you really need to know your credit “score”? You can build up credit without these companies.
Saves you giving a massive heap of data to these companies for an arbitrary number.
 
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Yaayuh! said:
Do you really need to know your credit “score”? You can build up credit without these companies.
Saves you giving a massive heap of data to these companies for an arbitrary number.
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Exactly, the score means nothing. Mine is currently poor because I recently took out finance for my new Jaag yet I have 10 credit cards with no missed payments and only 14% utilisation across the board. And no overdrafts and mobile contract always paid.
 
Yaayuh! said:
Do you really need to know your credit “score”? You can build up credit without these companies.
Saves you giving a massive heap of data to these companies for an arbitrary number.
Click to expand...
The companies have your data regardless. You subscribing allows you to access it.

Moneysaving expert - experian
Credit karma - trans Union
Clear score - equifax

Those 3 free entities are all you need. And are free!
Money saving expert one is clunky but experian is popular.
 
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