Hi there wondering if anyone can help. I applied and got accepted for Monzo Flex a while back in October/November. I have since used flex to spread out a payment of mine interest free over 3 months. Over this time and even up until now, no official hard search has been added on my file. I didn’t know if this was due to Monzo only reporting to certain agencies but I thought that they now relay back to all 3? I have tried looking on clearscore and Experian (linking my Monzo account to them too) and nothing is saying that it has a record of this card? I’ve even read back through the initial T&C’s and it says it will leave a hard stamp on my name? Is it me being plain stupid that I’ve missed something obvious?
I applied for Flex on 16-Sep-21, a hard search was then performed and recorded. I can see this via Credit Karma.
3 Likes
Also had a hard search for Flex on my Transunion record but nothing on Experian or Equifax.
1 Like
Mines not on any of mine either. Had mine since launch too
2 Likes
Just downloaded Credit Karma and it does appear as a hard search but not as a credit card with the limit I got accepted for? Anyone know why this is or more importantly why the other credit agencies can’t even see this??
1 Like
We’ve been reporting to TransUnion and Experian since we started Flex but we’re still going through the onboarding process for a new portfolio which takes some time.
It’s likely this will be completed in the next few months and you’ll see Flex on your credit report then.
7 Likes
Digging up a year old thread. Are we still waiting for this to happen? I don’t see Flex on Clearscore, but looks like it may be on Experian
Looks like Clearscore use Equifax in the UK - use of Experian is in other markets
When I took out Flex there was a hard search on TransUnion only. Monzo reported usage to both TransUnion and Experian, though.
Hi @TheoGibson 
Is there any more to add to this topic from the 
end?
It is a year old now, so would have generally seen itself closed automatically six months ago, but it would be nice to close it out with the current state of things
We report Flex to TransUnion and Experian - and have been pretty much since the start.
We don’t report to Equifax (ClearScore) yet - We don’t use Equifax in our credit decisioning so have no obligation to do so…
I suspect we’ll report to them one day because it causes a bit of confusion with ClearScore being the most widely used consumer credit file portal and customers seem to want us to - but it’s not a priority at the moment for a few reasons:
- It has a bit of overhead our side with added data privacy and security requirements.
- Very occasionally there’ll be scenarios where we have to manually adjust a customers credit file - this can add up to quite a lot of work when you have hundreds of thousands of accounts
- Most lenders use 2 or 3 bureaus so most lenders will be able to see Flex on your credit file anyway.
- There were historically some other reasons but I won’t go into these.
5 Likes
Many thanks for the update Theo. Much appreciated
I have changed the “solution” for this topic from your earlier post to this one, reflecting the updated information
I shall not close the topic, in case anyone wants further clarifications, but I have restored/added the automatic close after six months of no further replies
4 Likes
Thanks Theo for the explanation.
But this isn’t great, if Monzo report to one or two of the agencies, it should report to all - this keeps the scoring criteria similar across the agencies.
Also in Experian and TransUnion Flex appears as revolving budget account. I am not sure Equifax has the technology to support such accounts. It also used to show amex charge cards weirdly.
No idea if that also used to be an issue or not.
1 Like
Why isn’t it great? There’s no obligation to report everywhere and many, in fact, don’t. Your made up score doesn’t matter to anyone and as Theo says if you apply for credit chances are they’ll look at more than one file anyway
1 Like
There’s no such thing as unified scoring criteria, though. Each CRA uses their own criteria - and so will any lender to whom you apply for credit.
By way of an example (and this is in my experience), hard searches don’t affect your TransUnion score nor your Experian score. They do affect your Equifax score, though.
Because it’s all a made up load of nonsense, because of exactly what you just said.
3 Likes
Yes, the CRAs are now credit brokers so it’s in their interest to gamify the whole thing.
3 Likes
True, but it’s more similar than you think.
TransUnion didn’t penalize me for the Flex’s hard search, but my score went down when the actual Flex credit agreement was added to my file. Whereas Experian penalized the hard search but my score remained the same when the actual credit agreement appeared on my file