| If you have a perfect credit history and have never defaulted on a credit card, loan or mortgage
payment, then this article will not apply to you. In this article,
we are talking about 'adverse credit', a term that is used to describe
borrowers who have defaulted and been unable to satisfy the terms of
a credit agreement. Also known as 'sub-prime and 'poor credit' - they
all describe the same thing. The question is: how can you be labelled
an adverse credit customer, how do they get the information about you,
and just how far off course can your credit history go before it can
be given the term 'adverse'?
First of all, we will talk about the credit reference agencies,
they are the people who get the information and pass it on to the
lenders for a fee. The most commonly used credit reference agencies
are Experian and Equifax. It's not just the lenders that can see
your credit history either, anyone that has financial dealings with
you or is to provide ( Car
insurance ) you with a product or service, can see your file.
For example, insurance companies, banks, landlords, government agencies
and employers have the right, as long as they have a purpose as defined
by English Law.
Are you sitting comfortably? This is what they know about you:
- your name, date of birth and National Insurance number;
- your current and previous addresses;
- whether you're on the electoral roll;
- details of all your employers;
- details of your monthly payments on credit cards, loans, hire
purchase agreements;
- details of your mortgage;
- details of any unpaid County Court judgements
- records of all loan and credit card applications, irrespective
of whether you were accepted by the lender.
The credit reference agencies collect their information from the
Public Records offices and also from the financial institutions themselves,
eg banks, building societies ( cheap
life insurance ) and any other companies that could or have offered
you credit. From the moment you get a bank account, you're on the
public record, and your finances are there for people to access.
If a financial institution or other party, as enabled by law, requests
to see your credit history, then the credit reference agency will
supply it.
Credit reference agencies also offer another useful function, they
will give your data a credit score, using the lender's criteria to
give your credit history a score which will ultimately decide whether
or not you are eligible to receive credit. This is why your credit
score is so important.
When a credit score is carried out on your credit history, your
financial track record is given points for each criteria and how
well it satisfies it. Obviously, the higher score you get, the better
your scoring and the more attractive you become to the lender. For
( bad credit loans ) example,
a history which shows you have always paid your debts back on time
will give you a perfect credit score. These points are based on probability,
in other words, the likelihood that you will repay the credit without
defaulting. In effect, they are measuring your future ability to
repay by your previous ability to repay, assuming that it will remain
the same. They also compare your details to other applicants with
the same characteristics as you, for example your age and demographic,
to [ life insurance ]
predict your future behaviour. It is basically an automatic decision,
using statistics to match your details against criteria, and ensuring
that the decision is based on facts and objectivity, and does not
come down to a human decision (although this does happen in some
cases).
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