We have a feature which provides information about the positive and negative aspects that may be affecting your credit score.
These are just sentences that we display to you (they're not seen by anyone else other than you), however they indicate things that may be having a positive or negative effect.
You can see this information by logging into ClearScore, selecting 'Report' and scrolling down to the section "Factors on your report".
Once you have read this, would you mind looking in your 'Accounts' or 'Searches' tabs? If you look through your accounts (i.e. through payment history etc.), you should be able to find the information to which this positive/negative factor is referring to.
If you believe this is incorrect information on your credit report, you'll need to raise this as a dispute.
If this is the case, can I ask you to visit 'Something is not right on your report', via the following link:
https://www.clearscore.com/dispute
Understanding what the factors mean:
-) You have held at least one of your accounts for several years – this factor takes into account the average age of your active credit agreements. Having an account open for a long period of time can be seen as a positive and a sign of stability.
-) Your largest credit card limit is relatively high/low - A high credit limit may help your credit score. Lenders carrying out a credit check may be encouraged to see that another lender has trusted you with a high credit limit.
Lenders also look into your credit utilisation (this is the percentage of the available credit that you are using. E.g. if you have one credit card with a £1000 limit and £100 balance, your utilisation will be 10%).
If you keep your utilisation low and spread evenly across all your cards, this can have a positive impact on your score.
Some lenders recommend a credit utilisation of no more than 25% if possible.
-) Your total credit card % utilisation is relatively high/low - this is the percentage of the available credit that you are using (see above).
-) Your total mail order % utilisation is relatively high – this is referring to the credit utilisation for one of your store card accounts. You can view this information in the ‘Accounts’ tab of your report.
-) Your current Telecoms balance is relatively high - Your balance information is something that is taken into account when calculating your score.
When your report is pulled on a particular day of the month, your Telecoms balance will be the balance for this account at the time that the report was pulled.
Although you may have paid off this account or set up a direct debit to pay this off at the end of the month, your credit report shows a snapshot of your information as of the date that your report is pulled.
On this date, your Telecoms balance is seen as being high/low, which may affect your credit utilisation (see above).
-) You have made more than a few applications for credit in the past year – this is referring to the number of application for credit searches that you’ve made.
Would you mind looking through the 'Searches' tab of your credit report please? If you look through this section, you should be able to find any 'credit application' (hard) and 'quotation/personal' (soft) searches on your credit report.
If you believe this is incorrect information on your credit report, you'll need to raise this as a dispute please.
If this is the case, can I ask you to visit 'Something is not right on your report' please, via the following link: https://www.clearscore.com/dispute
-) You have had at least one account in Default or Repossession – this is indicating that one of your accounts has been in default/in arrears within the last 6 years.
Although the account may be settled now, the defaulted information will still stay on your report for 6 years from the date of the last activity.
Would you mind looking through the 'Accounts' tab of your credit report? If you look through your 'Open' and 'Closed' accounts (i.e. through Telecoms, Credit Cards, Utilities, payment history etc.), you should be able to find the account which is being referred to.
If you believe this is incorrect information on your credit report, you'll need to raise this as a dispute.
If this is the case, can I ask you to visit 'Something is not right on your report', via the following link: https://www.clearscore.com/dispute
-) You have exceeded your credit card limit several times in the past year – this is referring to either the balance or statement balance for one of your accounts exceeding the credit limit for that account.
-) You are not on the Electoral Roll at your current address – this indicates that you’re not on the electoral roll at the current address on your ClearScore account.
If you are already on the electoral roll but this is not showing up in your report, it may be worth double checking the name and address with which you're registered.
You can check your electoral roll information through your local council http://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/.
Please make sure your electoral roll details are exactly the same as the details you have registered with ClearScore (i.e. name and current address). If your electoral address does not exactly match the address you registered with us, it may be best to get this changed. Ideally, your address should be in the same format across all of your credit agreements and on the electoral roll.
If you have realised that the current address on your ClearScore account is incorrect, please see further details about how you can change your address here.
If you are already on the electoral roll under the same name and address which show on your ClearScore account and it’s been more than 4-6 weeks, you’ll need to fill in a dispute form to have this information corrected by Equifax directly (see the link below).
Similarly, if you believe there is an error in the Electoral Information on your credit report please follow this link to lodge a dispute: https://www.clearscore.com/dispute
If some of your electoral roll details are incorrect, you’ll need to contact your local authority and ask them to amend the information. When you receive a confirmation of amendment, please send this to Equifax as part of your dispute form and they will update your information on your report.
-) You have no active credit card accounts - If some of your accounts seem to be missing from your report, this could be for different reasons:
- They appear under a different company name,
- This particular lender does not share their information with Equifax (some don’t).
- Your account is new so hasn’t been added to your report. If an account has been recently opened, this may take up to 4-6 weeks to show on your credit report while Equifax wait for an update from the lender. Keep checking your report regularly to check for any updates.
- If this account is more than 10 years old, the credit reference agencies may not still hold this data on you and so it may not show up on your report.
If you suspect something is incorrectly missing from your report, you can either contact the lender involved or you can fill in a dispute form to get this corrected with Equifax directly: https://www.clearscore.com/dispute