How to check your credit score and report

Monzo Chat News & Updates
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Here’s everything you need to know about checking your credit score and report :eyes:

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This is a great summary.

It would have been nice to see an explanation on who Monzo use, and (based on conversations previously), how only using one bank (Monzo, or anyone else), could have an impact due to who they report to.

With people declaring themselves #fullmonzo, are they potentially causing issues down the line if they don’t use any other financial service provider?

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This is a very interesting point.
It is unlikely to have much of an impact (surely the country couldn’t run like that) — many lenders often only use one credit reference agency too and most people don’t have a great deal of financial services. But it would be interesting to know the answer to this.

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Yeah, I think this is part of the battle - Finding the correct information (rather than assumptions and little bits of knowledge here and there).

Appreciate it’ll only affect a small minority of people, but could you imagine being refused credit, based on the fact you only banked with one bank, and used no other credit cards, or financial products?

I’m not even sure it’s possible - But from what I’ve read, it sounds like it is indeed a possibility.

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Many do say you need a credit card to build credit.
But have you heard of any one being refused credit because of the bank account they have or no credit…

But yes, actually knowing this info is important none-the-less.
No one credit score is gospel, though it’s useful as a guide.

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I haven’t, and to be honest, I hadn’t given it a single thought, or even knew much about it until I started perusing these forums.

But what reading different comments from people showed me, is that we all do things very differently.

I’ve always been someone to spend as much as I possibly can on Amex or credit card, and then simply pay it off at the end of the month - For me, it’s the best use of the services available to me.

But I’ve seen others who put 100% through Monzo, with no other credit cards, no loans, no mortgage… nothing.

I would never have imagined that this could actually have a negative impact on their ability to get credit until people discussed the whole “who do you report to” business.

But if you fall into this second category, what’s the best thing to do?

Another current account with an overdraft? Another current account without an overdraft? Or a credit card that you pay off each month?

Genuinely interested to know if there is one answer to this, or if it’s too much of a minefield to advise on.

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Money saving experts offer the Experian credit score all nicely broken down for free , via their credit club

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My wife for a while was quite disconcerted because she’d try and look up her credit file with Noddle, only to be told she basically doesn’t exist. I guess this would be because her bank didn’t report to them? Just got her signed up with ClearScore which shows all her history except for Monzo :man_facepalming:t2:
I never really understood before this blog post that this is how it worked and thought that the different agencies just calculated things differently, not that they actively had to be reported to (makes sense now though).

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And they all use a different scoring system with different scales.

I’ve got my simplified guide listing how to get your score for free from each of the references agencies and the scoring system/bands:

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Thanks for bringing up my bugbear so quickly @nickh.

This article is interesting it doesn’t seem to suggest that Monzo won’t show on Equifax, has something changed?

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Yes, my sister was refused a phone contract for having no credit rating

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Me too back in the day (years ago), I kept getting declined for a mobile contract with O2.

I didn’t have any debt/missed payments, or anything that would have negatively impacted my credit rating, but equally nothing that had built it up (e.g. credit card use).

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Which agencies does Monzo report to?

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TransUnion(used to be call credit)

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Great, thanks!

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Does anyone from Monzo have any answers to the questions from last week?

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Been quite a while since my last bump here so I’ll try again?

Bump

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Wow that last week flew by didn’t it?

I saw that this blog post was highlighted in the Monzo October Journal, I still think that some clarifications on the questions above would be really useful to the community.

Any Monzonaughts got time to do some digging?

I do think that the article should be updated to say that depending on the credit reference agency you use you may or may not see your Monzo account, unless something has changed?

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I’ll second this - The above quote is from 25 days ago, but I haven’t seen any new information since.

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I’m back again!
I was going to give up but then I saw a post last week about how the Monzo community holds Monzo accountable so that’s what I’m going to do…

@cookywook I’ve contacted you previously I believe, over this issue and was given a “we don’t really know” response from in app chat in the end. Now that blog posts are being written on the subject I think it’s even more important we get some clarity.

Also I’d be interested to know (and excuse my language here) why Monzo are being so downright legacy about this topic in general. It’s been a month since @nickh asked his original question. Presumably somebody at Monzo reads every thread?

What’s the point in posting these blog posts on the forum if you’re just going to ignore any feedback or questions?

There was a lot of mocking of Starling for closing down their community but as far as this topic is concerned Monzo might as well not have one.

I know to many it seems like I’m making a big deal out of this but I don’t think it’s right to call yourself transparent and then not answer some questions.

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