I saw an advert for creditexpert.co.uk on the telly the other day. It reckons you can get details of your credit history with a 30 day free trial.
Purely out of interest, I wouldn't mind having a gander, even though I know my credit history is unblemished.

But, am I right in thinking that this kind of personal information can be had free of charge nowadays anyway, due to the revised Data Protection laws?

 

I signed up for that on friday, gonna cancel after 28 days just waiting for my pin to arrive in the post

 

Its worth signing up for the 30day free trial, I did this myself, but there wasnt really anything interesting on there.

Also unlike what they suggest, you dont get to see what you 'credit score' is - you have to pay 5quid for this.

 

Its not free to "see" your credit record, you have to write to the big 2 and enclose a modest sum (couple of quid) and ask for a copy of the information they hold on you.

its all coded

for instance if you were 1 month late in paying your credit card bill it would have number of 1a - 3

2 months late 1bs-1 and so on

what you wont get is a credit score of x/100 cos each company has their own criteria

not teaching peeps to suck eggs just going over it for those who dont know

 

Cheers mate, thought I might have got my wires crossed.

I'll probably give it a miss

 

Worth doing though seeing as though it costs nowt, all I'm doing for is cos its free..nowt to lose and maybe find out somet i didnt know about me, yet sum1 else does

 

Already did it months back whilst applying for my mortgage, Just wanted to make sure it ran smooth with no humps, no humps no humps no humps, those nasty little humps ooops, sorry, Bloody song!!!!...yeah anyway I did it and cancelled it on the 28th day, didnt get charged a dime, worth doing cos its free...think its about 40 odd quid if you forget and run past the 30 day FREE trial...

 

You do get a general credit score though, but you have to pay £4.99p, I know what you mean by 'own Criteria' tho..just thought Id add that little extra salt

 

I've signed up for the year. Yes it does cost but your credit history controls a major of our lives now so I wanted to keep an eye on it, plus there's always the possibilty of identity theft occuring and you knowing nothing about it.

I get an email from an experian whenever a credit search is done against me ,and warns me if anyone has marked down a late payment or any other discrepancies.

 

So they charge you £4-99 for a "credit score" that is only two quid in the first place, and hide the costs so you can't easily see them on their "creditexpert" web-site. And the five quid mentioned is an "introductory offer" - so what is the true cost?

Experian are really scraping the barrel

mb

 

No, you've got it wrong. For £2 you can see the records held on you. This does not = a credit score, it simply shows what credit accounts you have and your payment status. A credit score is something else entirely, which happens to take you existing credit into account.

The problem is, each lender has their own criteria. For example, Halifax have just lowered their headline loan rate to 5.8% but you'd have to be the Pope to qualify for that rate so even with a good score, excellent payment history and with a low credit-to-income ratio you could get "declined" and offered a higher rate. So Experians own score is merely an approximation.

 

Easy there, Bet thats costing you a fortune!!!!!!

 

Actually, I applied for a credit card once and got declined despite no defaults, decent income etc etc.

I thought something must be wrong, so I signed up to this experian thing you're talking about, and it turns out some idiot (probably next tenant in a flat I rented) had taken my name and address (from letter, probably) and tried applying for credit (storecards)

He never got any because he had my date of birth wrong, but it's still a bit annoying that someone would try that, and it was good to find out, because I've now managed to get it cleared off from the record.

I think that the credit card company probably got a bit scared when they saw credit searches with different dates of births on my file

Hopefully if I ever need to apply for a mortgage or credit card or whatever now, it will go smoothly.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it is well worth checking your credit file every now and then, just in case.

 

Most definately!!!