Understanding Your Credit Score

Morning all :sunglasses:

Today on the blog we’re looking at credit scores - what they are, why they’re important, and most importantly what you can do to improve them!

Is credit score something you’d like to see on Emma? :eyes:

https://emma-app.com/blog/2020/07/28/improve-your-credit-score/

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Definitely should be a must have! , only problem I’ve found is most of the 3rd party companies piggy back on TransUnion, would be more innovative to have an outlook over your scores across all 3 companies, then you could possibly highlight factors from your analytics.

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Hey @sean.read :wave:

Thanks for posting on the Emma Community - nice to have you here!

If you’d like you can introduce yourself here!

This is a cool idea! So a summary which says your score with TransUnion is X, your score with Equifax is X, etc? What kind of factors would you want to be highlighted in the analytics?

Hi and thank you! :blush: well I was thinking purely from a logical Perspective as you know not every bank/building society etc. Reports to all the credit agencies, so if we have all 3 and let’s say you missed your CC payment it would be cool to have let’s say a red marker or a CS indicator to give everyone an idea it’s going to impact negatively. On the other hand if you have a CC and the analytics pick up you’ve only used £100 out of £1000 CC limit and you’ve been paying it off promptly, to get an *keep up the good work that should have a positive impact on your credit score.

This could be a really nice addition to the weekly/ monthly spending reports too :raised_hands:

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That sounds really good! Could you possibly add to the report, need to be improved , IE if let’s say you’re not on the electoral roll etc. Indicating factors like these can have a positive impact , you know sort of like a checklist or achievements like you’ve got with the analytics?

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Yeeah so more awareness in the notifications - like, missing this payment can impact your CS!

I like the idea of having a guide/ learning section (although not sure where it would fit on the app exactly :joy:) but the checklist could be cool for the Quest section!

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Yes that’s what I was thinking off! , implementing quests for maintaining payments and keeping your details up to date etc. Maybe Gummy awards ? Or is that wishful thinking :thinking::joy:

Haha rewards for managing your money well - I like it!

We will see :wink:

We built something very similar from what is being discussed above, including scores over time, payments, improvements, etc…

I would say that using all of the big 3 providers (there are other agencies too!) would be extremely expensive for Emma. It could also lead to confusion.

While it is true some providers have more data for some credit account types than others, an overview of 3 scores would likely lead to confusion of the user. The scores are different ranges, have different metrics, and you will never know exactly what makes up a 650 or 800. That’s the CRA’s secret sauce and while it’s clear things will affect the score (electoral roll, missed payments, etc…) they will never tell you how many points that will change your score by.

Therefore it makes better sense to go with 1 provider for now. If you look at companies like TruNarative (we don’t use them however) then you could do a waterfall approach to searching for score.

E.g. search on TransUnion, if thin file (little data) then search on Experian. That will keep costs down while also ensuring someone has the ability to get a score.

Is there a reason that some providers have more data than others? Does it just depend on what that particular provider is scoring against?

You highlight a particular problem. Many lenders will pick 1 or 2 based on their risk appetite, trying to find as much to assess credit worthiness without rising costs… but there are instances where a CRA such as TransUnion gave the payday lending industry a great product and encouraged them to all use it, so now TransUnion have the highest proportion of the payday lending sector reporting to it. So what do you do if you want to lend to those likely to only be able to access high rates? You use TransUnion, thus feeding the problem.

Call me out as wrong, but if lenders had to report to all 3, even if not consuming all 3, yes competition would be affected but it would be fairer all round. CRAs would then compete on service levels, available services, cost… but not on who has what data.

I need to get a life. I sound so boring! :rofl:

What about if you bundled it with EMMA Pro ? Personally I prefer Experian, thankfully Monzo has started reporting to them.

I’m enjoying reading your responses haha so we must both be boring :joy:

I think if Emma does implement any of this, we really do need a streamlined method of escalating a case of incorrect information on your credit file, I’ve only had to do it once through credit karma who is owned by Trans-Union and this was 3-4 Months ago … still no reply :joy: so I gave up !

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What’s the process for disputing incorrect info with credit karma?

Depending on the dispute, my one said you no longer had an active mortgage :joy::joy: bearing in mind never had one in my life , it will says “ dispute to transunion “ , takes you to a simplistic web form or a email draft … then you let the eternity of waiting begin :weary:

It’s often quicker to dispute with the lender directly. Disputing with a CRA will often just add a note that an account is in dispute. If you complain to the lender directly (even without an account there) they should add a notice of correction within an appropriate time.

That’s the thing , it had no lender information, I checked other credit agencies in case it’s popped up there and it only shown on Trans-Union/ Credit Karma.