Credit Reports/Scoring at age 18

Hello Monzo Community,

I just turned 18 in November, I went to check my credit report on clear score, and Experian.

Unfortunately they are unable to find any report, I have been on the electoral register since last year as I have my voting slip for this year general election

I recently upgraded my Nationwide Flex One account to FlexDirect and was able to pass that Credit check according to the bank.

When I applied for a £20 month to month phone sim, I was rejected with no valid reason. I will stick with Voxi pay as you go.

Would any one be able to give advice on how I go about building a credit report.

Signed up to Loqbox as that help’s build a credit file acording to themselves.

Thanks,

David

Your report is updated every month, so I would say that you need to wait at least a month after you turn 18 for your first to be generated.

It could be you’ll need to wait nearly 2 months depending on what date of the month you were born and the date the report is updated if you’re unlucky.

I recommend money saving expert credit club for checking your score, it uses Experian but gives you alot of informative extras.

What @kolok is said is mostly right - once you turn 18 lenders will start reporting.
The part about your credit report being updated every month is only applicable to you - for lenders your credit report is generated as and when they ask for it and includes all available data at that point so it’s going to be hit or miss.

Remember a sudden surge in credit applications and new account openings will cause significant (though short term) damage to your credit worthiness in the eyes of lenders.

I’d highly recommend a SIM only contract with Three if they’re providing good coverage in your area as they don’t conduct credit risk assessments for their SIM only contracts they just use it to verify your ID / history of bad credit. No credit is fine.

Edit: I’ve changed the title from Credit Score Question just in case it might help anyone else find the thread - as @Justin suggests below it could be very useful for others.

Hi @davidbrockway, sorry to hear about the difficulties you’re facing. I hope you manage to overcome them.

Please do keep us updated on your progress, as your experiences will be helpful to others on the thread.

Good luck!

Hello All,

I have some update, I spoke with Clear Score and according to them I still have no credit report but they did generate a thind down report.

I have managed to get a credit card with capital one without any issues just have to send ID in the post like I did with nationwide previously.

Same with clear Score had to upload ID, clear Score had been able to generate a thind down report and EE rejected me based on ID not verified on credit report.

Clear Score has said it will contact the CRS and remove this check that EE did due to it N/A acording to both clear Score and expieran.

Resolved ID will clear Score, will phone expieran latter this morning and resolve the ID issue with them also.

Thank,

David

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Do you necessarily need a credit card with capital one?

It’s perhaps not the best idea.

Unfortunately yes to build credit.

I did manage to acsess my clear Score report and Is missing monzo and nationwide oddly.

To display Monzo on your report, you’d need to get one from a company that uses the CRA(Credit Referencing Agency) called Transunion. An example of a companies that use Transunion are Credit karma or Totally Money.

Monzo currently don’t report to Equifax which powers Clearscore

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What agency do clear score use? It might not be the same one capital one check

Monzo only use transunion so you need to check credit karma for that

You’d be best off opening a bank account which reports to all 3 agencies or it will look like you don’t have a bank account to some lenders. Keeping your Monzo account will help too but they only report to the smallest reference agency so it might not be doing you good as having another one open too.

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Equifax.

Nationwide will show on clearscore, but may take a little while :grin:

Make regular small purchases with the capital One credit card and pay it off in full every month.
Quick way to improve credit rating, as it shows you can manage credit.

And the best of luck :+1:

Hello Ivan,

Capital One is not gonna be used much, how much do you suggest? small like £10 per month?

Clearscore also applied for a chromecar for me on signup and now that a big issue as two credit cards on report is gonna be a conflict correct?

As long as you can afford to pay the full balance every month, the amount is up to you.

If you have been accepted for the ChromeCard, then just take it but don’t use it.
It could possibly have a positive effect, because your credit utililisation will be lower too.

Hi David,

There’s a post I wrote here that may help you build your credit history without the risk of getting into debt (especially with the likes Capital One).

Hopefully you might find it useful :grin:

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Thank you,

I will use my Vanqus card with a £250 limit on their but high APR all I’m gonna do I use a £10 per month and pay it back as soon as the statement comes.

Thanks ,

David

Having a credit card with a £250 limit will not present a good image to lenders because the limit is simply too low.

With that being said, it sounds like you’ve made a fair few credit applications recently and so it’s not going to be a good idea closing this one or applying for anymore within the near future.

You can spend as much as you like and as long as you don’t use more than 50% of your credit limit as a general rule and whether you’re making full repayments or at least the minimum makes no difference to your credit worthiness but you’ll have to pay interest if you don’t pay the full balance.

I can remember when I had no credit back at 18 my first phone contract was with o2. They made me pay a £100 deposit and given I paid the first 3 bills on time, I got the £100 back.

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