Does Monzo share data with Experian? Credit rate plummeted since joining!

Just adding my 2p here.

CRAs have no way to tell which account you use as your main account because positive balances aren’t reported. Therefore switching between two existing accounts will never cause your score to dip.

It’s interesting that as soon as your score dipped you jumped to the forum to say because they don’t report to Experian (which they do), you feel the need to “flee” Monzo right now. But you conveniently omitted the fact that you agreed an overdraft with them and, most importantly, that you moved addresses; both of which can have significant impacts on your score.

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Not really on-topic but I find the system of credit scores quite confusing. Unreliable in my eyes.
I am fairly new to the UK. (November ’19)
Nevertheless I am registered by 2 agencies. Only Experian doesn’t let me sign up due to my lack of address history -3yrs.
I am on the electoral role, have various DD’s set up.
Applied for a second credit card in July and that only ditched me 21 points on the score which remains good.

I am with a lot of the commenters here that mortgage providers look at different things.
I am in the process of taking out a mortgage. The bank I have a current account with and doesn’t want to provide me with a credit card yet, gave me a very competitive quote for a mortgage.
Therefor they require a lot more detailed information than just a look at the score. I had to provide various documents, proof of income etc.

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Credit scores are made up by the CRAs to try and peddle connected products and services for which they receive a commission. They mean nothing and banks don’t see them

Every lender have their own score based on their own criteria being applied to the raw data supplied by CRAs. For mortgages, lenders do a rather detailed review of your finances. For credit cards, it’s usually a simple computer says yes/no based on what they can see from the supplied data.

If a bank wants to give you a mortgage but not a credit card, it might be due to different lending criteria.

I know a few years ago some banks insisted on three years of UK address history before considering a credit card application (I had a run-in with a xenophobic NatWest advisor somewhere in Kent and the branch brushed my complaint off). But as a mortgage is a secured loan they may not be so jumpy because if you can afford it and buy a property you’re not very likely to just up and leave

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I’ve just decided to switch everything over from Santander to Monzo. I am wondering if I should abort the switch if it causes problems with my credit record.

Part of me thinks that if it does, it wont be a massive dip to cause any problems plus I dont plan on applying for anything this year

I wouldn’t worry about it Martin. As said above, CRAs don’t see the actual balance of your account, unless you’re into your overdraft, so it doesn’t really matter which current account your money, direct debits etc sit in.

To @Abby, my Experian score dropped from mid 900’s to high 700’s when we last moved house. I suspect this is the root cause, not your current account.

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Do have a read of the above thread – it is very unlikely that switching banks will cause a significant drop in your score, and even if it does, lenders don’t see the made-up score.

If anything will cause a drop in your score it’s closing a long-standing account and opening a new one (reducing your average account age)

I did read the threads above and I forgot to mention I have been with Santander for close to 10 years which made me wonder if it causes a drop in credit score, would it really matter

If you have any major worries you could just do what I did and move DDs over manually to Monzo (i.e. do not do a CASS), in my case to leave open my ancient HSBC account.

In most cases it took no more than a minute or two and that was with moving to Starling and again to Monzo within a few months (so I got to experience it twice for around a dozen of them)

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and @BenLeo

That 0 you see inside credit checking tools is just for the public so they don’t freak out.

The CRA will know which is your main bank from the total income that’s reported each month. The lender won’t care though if you have your salary into say HSBC or Monzo, they want to just make sure your estimated yearly salary that the CRA provides back is close to what you say it is. If the delta is too great you’ll get brownie points taken off the monzo scoring for loans/overdraft calculations etc

Edit I should add back when Monzo was cool, you could actually go on chat and ask what your estimated salary is that TransUnion provides. Might be more of a battle these days to get them to play ball.

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I jumped to the forum for advice, which people have been kind enough to offer me, with a less sarcastic tone than some!! :joy:

Thank you BenLeo, having spoken with a financial advisor today she too believes it will have been the house move that accounts for the bulk of the drop :blush: much more reassured now! For now I stay with Monzo!

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