Financial Frustration

I use three sites based here in the UK to check my credit rating.  Experian which only gives you a score for free, you have to pay for full access, which I'm not going to do.  CreditWise by Capital One which is powered by Equifax which gives you more information and is also free, and I use Credit Karma [formerly Noddle] most of all which is powered by TransUnion [formerly CallCredit].  There are premium offerings by each, but I only use the free levels in each product because that's all I need.

Credit Karma gives the most information for free, and it was the site I used first [as Noddle] before any of the others.  Since I started paying attention to my credit score however I have realised how infuriating it actually is.  You would think it would remain somewhat fixed or would improve over time as long as your circumstances didn't change much, but that's not the case, it fluctuates and often with no rhyme nor reason as to why.

Fluctuations aside however, the thing I find most perplexing and causes me the most consternation is the fact that all three return completely different scores, and some things appear on one but not the other.  My credit score is 200 points lower on Equifax than it is on CallCredit and the CallCredit score is about 50 points lower than the Experian score.  This makes the whole management of credit even more confusing.

"Why should you care?" most people ask, well if you get credit and accept that as the best deal you will ever get then you will waste hundreds, if not thousands of pounds in interest over time.  Credit issuers have 0% offers you can take advantage of in order to reduce or even avoid interest entirely.  Knowing what impacts your credit score can increase your chances of approval and allow you to save yourself money in the long run.

I was never this conscious of my credit score until a few years ago when I spent a year working for a credit card company in their call centre and realised how these systems actually work.  I really had my eyes opened to how much they exploit people for profit, which made me adamant that I would minimize the profit they made from me wherever I could and maximize the amount of credit I could access at the lowest cost in the process. 

There are two pieces of advice I would give anyone out there who wants to improve their finances.  First, know your score and know what is impacting it.  Second, whenever anything goes wrong, complain, even if you are in the wrong, complain anyway.  Most credit card companies will refund fees and charges if you ask them to, you have to ask though, they won't offer to do it.  To the point on complaining, they are charged a fine by the financial ombudsman for any complaint they cannot resolve within 8 weeks regardless of who is at fault.  Most credit card companies will appease you before the 8 week period is up to avoid the fine - unless the amount being discussed is more than the fine - so as a general rule if the amount you want to complain about is less than a few hundred pounds then complain.

As for the staff that work in their call centres, be patient with them.  In almost all situations they don't actually work for the bank you're calling, but a third party company that owns the call centre.  There's a limit to what they can do, using computer systems that don't show them everything, and often only let them see but not edit details.  Just remember at the end of the day it's a person on the other side of the line, who is just doing their job.  Most people will be understanding if you just explain yourself.  Banks have so many bad practices and the staff of these call centres are under as much pressure as you are as a customer.  In an ideal world there would be no need for credit but life is expensive and it's not always possible to wait to buy the things we need to survive.  Credit is often seen as an indulgence or a frivolity, but for many people it is the only way they can survive on the finances they have.  Most people who work in these call centres understand that, they have to work after all, they aren't wealthy enough not to have the luxury to choose not to.  There's a human on the other side - for now at least - appeal to the humanity.