These things are all tradeoffs - nothing is perfect.
Personally a public body would ultimately be more accountable, in my view, than having any number of overseas companies that, by dint of saying they’re a credit reference agency, become entitled to my data. That feels fundamentally wrong, in my view.
You can still have an issue now with three of them and depending on which one is used when you make an application, it can still mean you get rejected/declined for finance.
I just feel, like others, it should be separate from any US company, it should be non-profit and it shouldn’t be able to sell your data. It’s your data but these companies make big money out of the information they hold.
I get that and I’m not entirely comfortable with that. What is not good is to have one organisation having sole control. Particularly if that is a government agency: the accountability aspect can be largely irrelevant as a government organisation can easily get into the mindset “we are right, you are wrong”.
Current case in point: the McCloud judgement on public sector pensions which is still not resolved over ten years down the line. In fact that one was directed to be resolved by April 2024 but seems unlikely to be fully resolved until 2027. Reason given for the delay: we don’t have the staff so we’re telling you that you have to wait. This is not accountability.
I understood that civil service pensions are outsourced. If the outsourcing company (Capita?) doesn’t have the staff then that would seem to be an argument for insourcing.
But this is primarily ideological so not something that everyone will agree on. All I’ll say is that having multiple organisations to do the same thing seems terribly inefficient - instead there should be more accountability and consequences, whatever the sector.
It’s the same problem in other public sector schemes that aren’t outsourced. Pensions in general are underresourced.
The issue I have with ‘accountability’ in government and mutually owned organisations is that there are no consequences. It’s why the McCloud thing is taking years longer than it should have taken to resolve. It’s why Equitable Life was allowed to essentially walk away from the consequences of its actions.
It’s why I’d much rather have more than one place to choose from in all circumstances. Three credit agencies are way better than one for the simple reason that with three, one could be shut down if something went badly wrong.
A few months on, I think it’s time for an update.
First up my scores, as a reminder here’s where I was at previously:
Since then, nothing exciting’s happened on my credit file, so this should only be the impact of the VT.
Clearscore: 996/1000 - shows as closed.
Credit Karma: 669/710 - shows as paid and closed.
Experian: 1250/1250 - shows as settled with a note about section 99.
So nice to see after all of that I’ve pretty much had no impact.
The finance company on the other had has been a bit of a mess. I was sent a letter a few weeks back saying they were ‘disappointed’ that I hadn’t paid some outstanding charges related to the VT. The amount was just shy of £300 and apparently accounted for damage to the vehicle and a £70 collection fee.
The thing is, I haven’t had any communication from them prior to this with the condition report and itemised charges. I had no idea they even wanted this money! I also dropped off the vehicle myself so there should have been no collection fee. For the record, the actual amount being charged is completely fine - one of the alloys was damaged, there was a scratch running up the side of the car across multiple body panels from driving down country lanes so I was expecting to pay more. But until they’ve actually provided me with more detail around the charges, I can’t reasonably be expected to pay - I’d also add that they haven’t told me how to pay either!
I’ve contested this already with the finance company, had confirmation that my response was received and chased at the 14 day point, but I’ve still heard nothing back from them.
Next step is likely escalating to a complaint, but we’ll see what happens over the next few days…
I seem to have a bit of a run of 15 to 18 month 0% balance transfer offers coming up from HSBC, Lloyds, and Virgin. Is it just me that thinks that three similar offers turning up unsolicited at the same time seem a bit strange? Have I accidentally done something ‘right’?
Just risk appetites changing and lending profiles fitting the criteria.
Only downer is that I can’t BT from Nationwide to Virgin anymore. Well, that and my HSBC limit needs to be a lot more to make it a useful BT card, but I guess you can’t have everything. Though maybe it’s a good time to ask HSBC to up the limit?
Virgin had a great deal Jan 2025. 0% until well into 2027. I BT £10k. Then they did another one for 18 months. I suspect they’re loving the BT fees.
I’ve worked out I can get a Monzo loan for significantly lower interest than the BT fee I’d have across 2 cards. Winner.
Wouldn’t you? 
Surely not? Virgin BT fee is 4% or lower which would need a Monzo loan under 2.6%/year
The Virgin BT was 4%, the Monzo loan 5.5% (which is technically more [prima facie]) but I factored in the length of the term. Monzo loan is over 25 months and you can pay off quicker without penalty. The Virgin BT was basically just under a year before interest accruing so I’d have to transfer out again (albeit on a decreasing balance).
I worked out it was roughly £520 interest with the Monzo loan over the longer period or roughly £400 for the BT fee and would need to BT again in under a year. It was something like £150-£200 less with the loan.
I can’t remember the exact figures but I wrote them down somewhere.
Capital one has longer BT period and lower fee.
I think Natwest group still have the no fee BT card for 12 months
Actually. Wait a minute. I just found one of the quotes.
How does this make sense?!
£8,200 loan application
Monthly repayment £360
Repayment period - 25 months
Total you’ll pay - £8,668.53 (5.5% APR)
I can’t see where any of that adds up at all lol.
That’s what I was thinking. Virgin is 4% flat rate which is roughly 2.6% APR, so cheaper than Monzo. For £8200, you’d pay £8528 on Virgin.
Yeah. But I’m not getting Monzo’s figures in that illustration. Either their APR is wrong or the monthly figure or the total amount. It’s actually £9,000 repaid for a start…?
Hopefully this is the right place for this.
So my electoral roll is now at all three CRAs 
. That’s the major thing. And I’m dealing with Santander UK to get the wrong address removed from my report. (Not my old one, I’m aware the old one will stick around for ages)
But I have a question about my credit score (which I know doesn’t matter, but it’s still a rough indicator of where you are). So my Equifax has jumped by 75 points all the way to 547. And TU has also gone up to 586. Yet CheckMyFile has gone down 14 points overnight? How? I’m not obsessing over this, I just don’t see how I’ve managed to make it go down 14. And it actually went up after the first direct hard checks.
Also, is there any way I can get Experian to try and verify my identity again? As when I tried signing up it said I had to wait 90 days to try again. It’s stupid either way. They should offer the option of uploading your passport/driver’s license. It’s what CheckMyFile does as backup (which I didn’t need to use as they found it perfectly fine unlike Experian 
).
You will never make sense of the numbers.
Ignore them and just make sure all the data is correct.
Just wait? What’s the rush?
You’re obsessing again which brings distaste to the community, so let’s not get there again.
It is because they are made up. If those numbers really made sense, I wouldn’t be having access to credit like what I have. All reports have me down as poor/fair all the time but I don’t care.