adjudicator89

My question is, how do you build credit in the UK if the NIN number has nothing to do with credit?

Octang Frye

That's a good question. I guess you do it on your name.

adjudicator89

Ha Ha
That's all your name?

MsElui

credit record is held against name/address. So you do it like anywhere else. get a loan, pay it off, pay your utilities, get a secured credit card etc.

Bluegrass Lass

But what if the last person who lived there had crappy credit? How do you get around that?

Edit: Never mind..just read your response on the OP's other thread.


I also heard that you also have to be a registered voter before you can get some types of credit. If that's true, I suppose someone there on a visa would find it mighty damn difficult to get credit.

Milan, these questions could better be answered in the Moving Back to the UK Forum, or by going to http://talk.uk-yankee.com/. Everyone here are people living in the US, not the UK.

Duncan Roberts

It can and does cause problems. You have to contact the credit companies to sort it out. I've read many a story where somebody moved into a house, especially rented student places, where the previous owner had ordered a bunch of stuff from a mail order catalog and never paid the bill and the new resident there has issues with credit. I think it used to be that credit was based solely on address, not name, but that changed. I know on my UK credit report when I was younger I had some of my parents stuff showing up on it.

MsElui

Yes - the name is used as is date of birth. So when they are checking they can check its the same first names, surname and dob as the applicant. You can get corrections put on the record if necessary.

We bought a home from a person whose surname differered from our by 1 letter. (random example if our surname was Bick - theirs was Blick). They had a terrible record - but we never had any issues. It could easily be seen that we had different first names and ages.

Like the US - you can request a copy of your credit record - you need to give you full names and the relevant addresses for the past 3 years and they send it. You can challenge whats on there if you feel it is wrong - but you must have the facts to prove it (ie if you dont pay your bills and a company puts that on there they wont change it just becuase you dont like it).

Electoral registar info is gathered annually by the local council. It should list all occupants at the home (owners, renters etc) of the relevant age. That is input into the same credit system and if the detail match - ie using the previous example it shows a BICK has been registered at the electoral register for that address - it greatly helps to verify your adrress is genuine. I do not know how an immigrant is dealt with as I dont know if its based on ability to vote only or whether all occupants are potentially on the credit system and the councils just discard the ones inelgible to vote.

When you go for credit they are checking that you do actually live at the address you claim (and thus want to see an electoral register entry on the system and/or proof by means of utlility bill, bank statement etc). They then will look to see if there is any credit info - good or bad. They will give you a score based on a lot of factors (for instance - length of time in current home, length of time in current employment, length of time had a bank account, already holds credit cards with others, has kids, married rather than single, not self employed, amount of salary, amount of outgoings etc). These criteria are given plus or minus points by the lender and your information is weighted against them.

This score will be different for each credit lender - (as they will have a level of risk, higher or lesser interest rates and charges, higher or lesser credit limits, typical default rate of their core sutomer population etc etc) and they will never tell your your numerical score and/or the threshold. they have an absolute pass mark - so (and making up random number here) say your score was 25 and their pass mark was 22 - if the electoral roll info matched you would be autmatically approved (for a limit determined by your salary). If you scored 22 and had no electoral roll entry they may pend it and want to see evidence you live there or get nore verification (ie job reference confirming you work where you claim, doing what you claimed for x years) or (bank reference - ie hold an account in good status for x years with x branch). They could then approve or decline once they get the info. If you scored 15 they they would likely decline you. This is a policy decline (ie you dont have enough of a score to pass that particular credit lenders criteria). If you have a bad credit record (defaults, arrears, county court judgements etc) then it would be a informational decline and they would refer you to the credit record bureau.

They dont have to tell you why they decline you - except if they used 'negative' info from the credit bureau then they will decline you and point you at that bureau for you to investigate and correct if possible. If your 'decline' letter doesnt mention the bureau then is just the score you slipped up on. You can improve it by staying in the same job, staying in the same home, holding a bank account, etc.

Also bear in mind that every time you apply for credit - the credit record is marked by the searching company. If you have 8 searches in the past month - that in itself can look bad and be a reason they may chose not to give credit. So dont apply for any old thing as it could bite you.