Credit scoring tries to predict your future behaviour, i.e., how you will deal with future credit based on how you have dealt with credit in the past. You’d be wrong in assuming that a high score would automatically make you an attractive option for a mortgage lender. Lenders look at a lot more than just your credit score and can score you differently. Your Credit Report is what provides them with the additional information that will dictate whether or not they will lend to you.
Reports not only look at your credit history and how you’ve dealt with credit in the past, but pull information from the Electoral Role, Court Records (e.g. County court Judgements, decrees, bankruptcies, etc) which may show a history of debt, different addresses you may be linked to, financial associations, account behaviour (e.g., credit/store cards, loans, mortgages, bank accounts, energy and mobile phone contracts (from the last 6 years) and whether or not you’ve ever used a payday loan.
There are 3 main Credit Reference Agencies in the UK; Experian, Equifax and Callcredit. When you apply for a mortgage, or in fact any form of credit, the lender will approach one, two or all three of these agencies for information and as each agency can hold different credit details about you, the lender will get more detail about how you deal with credit. There is a 4th, and relative new-comer to credit references agencies, called Crediva.
How it can affect your mortgage application and how we could help
Having signed up with one credit reference agency and received a positive credit report, you may think everything is OK and that your mortgage application will go ahead without incident. However, its possible for your chosen lender, (having requested information from an agency you didn’t use) to find something in your credit history they see as too much of a risk to lend to you. The lender can therefore decline your mortgage application without telling you exactly why.
Check your credit history well before you go for your mortgage. For one of the most comprehensive credit checks currently on the market, we’d suggest using Check my file. It pulls information from all 3 of the major credit reference agencies as well as Crediva. Look for any ‘adverse credit’, query anything you know you have resolved with the lender, utility company, etc.
We visited Martin Lewis – www.moneysavingexpert.com which helped us explain Credit Scores and Credit History