Closing an account that you have held for a while can cause a dip in your score for a period. Lenders like to see long financial relationships. This dip isnt because you opened a Monzo account as such. It would be the same if you opened an account with anyone else and closed your HSBC account. You can see your score starting to increase again by the next month.
Your score is determined by the CRA not lenders. Yes a higher score is an indication of your likelihood of obtaining credit (based on models created by the CRAs) but your credit history is far more important (such as defaults, missed payments etc).
Out of interest, is this something you considered before you switched, or was it only afterwards that you realised?
I still don’t think Monzo do enough to educate around this subject.
I get it’s pretty hard, as the chances are that educating people on the subject would potentially lose them business, but I do wonder how many people will be negatively impacted by the hype of going “FullMonzo”.
I didn’t CASS to Monzo for the very reason I wanted to keep my old account history with the CRA’s to show a long standing financial relationship.
While that’s true and I understand that, average age is going to remain at zero if clearscore aren’t tracking it.
Do wonder if monzo getting a feed to them will backdate it from account creation date or if it’ll start at zero again. We’ll see if clearscore/Equifax get the information from monzo ever.
I did consider it prior to enacting the change but HSBC annoyed me so much at the time I felt the only punitive action I can inflict on a bank is vote with my money and leave. Retrospectively not sure if I should have left the account open but the faff of moving all the direct debits was a big motivation to just scrap the lot.
As for the system of credit rating Vs modern fluid banking, it’s kinda counter productive to the CASS system if you have to retain zombie accounts for this sort of thing.
On top of what others have said, a bank account isn’t the only thing that can affect your score. It’s made up of many, many other factors some which carry a lot more weight.
If the only thing that you’ve done is open a new account, and nothing else has changed (debts and such for example) I’d argue that other things will also be bringing your score down too.
Without seeing the rest of your report it would be impossible to know though
I agree, but sadly it’s a case of “playing the game” if you want to go all in on Monzo right now.
Which means keeping old accounts active to boost your average financial relationship length, and ultimately having multiple accounts (before Monzo, I only ever had 1 account and didn’t give it a second thought).
It’s unlikely to make too much difference if you have other things in your record (phone contracts, utilities, electoral roll etc), so you should be fine.
Yeah I’m not especially worried about it merely aware it happened. I think really the lack of tracked current accounts on the report is the big issue but the fact the score is slowly regaining ground without a tracked current account adds more fuel to the argument it’s all pointless.
Yes, this. The CRAs regularly fluctuate your ‘scores’ just to make you return to the app to keep checking it, so they can plonk loan and credit card ‘deals’ in front of your
I agree with the dip because I have Monzo, Natwest and Llyods. I terminated my Llyods and I did notice dip in credit score because I had LLyods for 5 years compared to Monzo which is 2 years plus. Opening a new account also can reduce the credit score. It will eventually improve from my own experience.
Ok so after seeing quite a few credit score topics recently, I decided to check on mine since becoming Full Monzo almost 2 years ago.
I have no other bank accounts or credit cards, just the usual direct debits, mortgage and a car loan.
My score was low, so I did some digging.
Turns out Virgin Media put a default on my report for an £11 debt from LAST YEAR. I had to cancel my broadband with them because I was moving to a new house in an area they didn’t cover. Instead of contacting me at my new address, emailing or telephoning, they apparently just kept sending letters to my old address
After having to escalate this to the ombudsman I won my case and the mark was removed on my file.
So there you have it Regardless of if you think scores are important or not, for me, Monzo has had no impact.
I’d advise that if someone has concerns that they pay a couple of quid to see a detailed view and chase up unscrupulous companies. How they’re allowed to tarnish someones credit report so carelessly is beyond me.
Please, nobody actually pay for the scam of a service the credit bureaus offer.
You are legally entitled to a free statutory report and you can get one from their sites, or use a credit report viewing tool like Moneyexpert’s credit club, credit karma or Clearscore.
Yeah it is free but it didn’t tell me who left the default marker or when. I just paid for one month then cancelled. £2 or whatever it was was worth it for the potential of getting better APR on my lending etc.
In fact I got £100 compensation so it was sort of covered with that
Appreciate this is just your personal experience, but I think it’s worth highlighting the things that Monzo don’t want to, for anyone young who is perhaps getting a first bank account or doesn’t have much credit history.
Your Experian score has absolutely nothing to do with Monzo - Any rises or falls in your score are because of exterior factors. One can hazard a guess that your score is excellent due to other financial relationships you’ve had, and the history that comes with them.
It doesn’t change the fact that a young person (Monzo’s target audience), who has zero credit history might struggle to receive finance or other credit terms because they’ve only ever had Monzo, and may not appear on credit searches.
It’s not hard for Monzo to report to the other 2 agencies, they just decide not to.
Likewise, right now, it’s still beneficial for young people, and anyone wanting (for whatever reason), to build up a history with the CRA’s, to use both Monzo and a legacy account if they can.
For all the “informative” SEO posts insist on doing, it’s a shame this topic is neglected.
1 Like
phildawson
(Sorry, I will have to escalate this.)
87
Glad you got it sorted.
Was that free MSE creditclub or “free” Experian that didn’t show who the default was by?
The “free” Experian is there to trick into paying for the full version.
The free MSE creditclub proxy’s the full Experian so should have shown it.
Regardless of if you think scores are important or not, for me, Monzo has had no impact.
