Credit Files Updates

Both will probably depend on the lender.

I doubt that having "one" good payment is going to help you. Generally they will score you based on the "history" of the file and not just the last few transactions.

Most lenders in the UK subscribe to CAIS which is an acronym for 'Credit Account Information Sharing'. Basically, the credit reference and lending organisations have an arrangement whereby the lending company submits the activity of their customer accounts to the credit reference agency in return for being able to see the customer activity of all the other lenders that subscribe.

Experian and Equifax are the UKs largest credit reference agencies, and most companies submit their customers account information to either one or both organisations. Sometimes you can have data recorded on one file, but missing on the other, which can be simply down to the lending organisation only submitting data to one of the two main organisations. For example, Barclays (who I used to bank with and had a Barclaycard with) only used to submit account information to Experian and nothing to Equifax.

There is usually a set date in the month when the lender submits the information for the previous month worth of transactions. If for example, your lender submits the information tot he credit reference agencies on the on the 1st of the month, but you pay your bill on the 2nd, then your payment history will not show until the following month.

Search information is instant, so if you apply for 10 credit cards in one day, if they all processed the next day then you will have 10 searches on your file appear the next day. The probability of having a credit card approved will diminish as the number of searches increase during the day.

The payment information does not show dates payment were made, only that your payment has been on time. They appear for a maximum 36 months on your file. A good payment history will show up as a series of '0s', whereas if you have a '1' then you're 1 month in arrears, a '2' then you're two months in arrears, etc. If you get a 'D' then its an account default and a big turn off for lenders, especially so if recent.

Hope that helps.

Is making partial payments that are more than the minimum payments (e.g. 4% of full balance) every month for say 6 months on one of my card good or bad in applying for another credit card? (Thinking about transferring my balance on a "0% balance transfer for 6 months card" to a Platinum card).

Incidentally, does anyone know of any Platinum Cards that

1) Offer 0% balance transfer for >=6 months 2) Offer cashback/reward scheme that is equivalent to 0.4% cashback?

(The best I could find is RBOS's Platinum, offering one 1 Air Mile per twenty quid spent).

It is no better than making the minimum payments, in the sense how it is reflected in your credit file.

Barclay platinum, 0% till August 2005.

American Express platinum, up to 2%.

Vadim

Without a hint of irony, "peter" astounded uk.finance on 20 Sep 2004 by announcing:

Entirely depends on the company. Some send the information once a month, others only when they register a default.

Normally up to a month later. Searches, however, are recorded immediately they are made.

Without a hint of irony, "Neaco" astounded uk.finance on 20 Sep 2004 by announcing:

Although not the name of the lender or the account number.

Without a hint of irony, Vadim Borshchev astounded uk.finance on 22 Sep 2004 by announcing:

Although they now charge 2% on all transfers.

Depending on your annual spend, and they've just increased the bands (lowering the effective return).

Without a hint of irony, "Neaco" astounded uk.finance on 20 Sep 2004 by announcing:

As far as Experian goes, they use 'D' to indicate a 'dormant' account, not a default. Their codes are:

0 Payments are up to date 1 Payments are up to 1 month late 2 Payments are up to 2 months late 3 Payments are up to 3 months late 4 Payments are up to 4 months late 5 Payments are up to 5 months late 6 Payments 6 months or more late 8 The account is in default. You failed to keep to your credit agreement and have not responded satisfactorily to requests to put your account in order, so the credit agreement has ended. D The account is not being usednothing is owed. U The lender has been unable to give the account a statement for this month. This may be at the start of the credit agreement when the lender is allowing time for the account to be set up; when the customer is waiting for goods to be delivered; when the customer has received the goods but payment is not due to start immediately; when there is a dispute over the payments due or the goods received; or when the account is not being used.

Without a hint of irony, snipped-for-privacy@spammotel.com (pat) astounded uk.finance on 21 Sep 2004 by announcing:

That depends entirely on the lender's credit policy for that particular product.