Applying for credit cards? Check your full credit report online, for free, with Noddle

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• Lev441 says:

  16 Feb16 February 03:34

  I’ve tried to sign up for noodle countless times but was never able to get past the credit card identification check stage with their customer service not helping to solve the problem.

  I resigned myself to needing to pay to check my credit file until I heard about clearscore which is another completely free service which uses data from equifax..

• Matt says:

  16 Feb16 February 03:37

  Noddle is great resource, while some MSE forum evangelists would like you to believe that credit scores are worthless, they are highly correlated with the typical scorecards that lenders use to evaluate your application. The major thing that it doesn’t take into account is personal income, which is a big factor in getting accepted for the top rewards cards.

  • John says:

    16 Feb16 February 06:42

    The MSE forumites are correct. Your credit score as ‘sold’ to you by Experian/Equifax/Callcredit is completely unrelated to your chance of getting accepted for a financial product.

    My Noddle score has been 2/5 for years yet I have always been approved for the cards I want. It’s probably because my credit limits are over £50,000 and frequently maxed out (but always repaid in full).

    Noddle’s website is awful and I prefer the Clearscore interface, which provides more information than Noddle. When I paid for my statutory Experian report, they only had about 20% of my financial products and they couldn’t link me to the rest, but as it hasn’t affected me adversely I don’t care.

    • Matt says:

      16 Feb16 February 09:53

      You are incorrect in saying that it is completely unrelated. While lenders don’t use credit scores in the form that we see them, the underlying variables that feed into them are identical to those that feed into lenders scorecards, alongside any other information you provide them. As mentioned below, not all lenders use CallCredit (around ~40% of the major players) which will drive some variation versus Noddle. For disclosure, I work in the industry.

      The main use-case of a credit score is as a personal barometer. There will always be a bunch of people who consistently score 2/5 and get accepted for lots of products. However, if you have a 5/5 and suddenly drop to a 2/5 you might want to take notice and figure out what has changed. People always get caught up in the actual numbers, these are arbitrary and should certainly be taken with a pinch of salt.

      Linking of accounts has always been an issue for Experian, it’s quite often an address matching issue if you’ve moved around a lot. I struggle to see the value in paying 14.99/month for Experian credit expert or any subscription service when free alternatives are available.

• Steve says:

  16 Feb16 February 05:22

  Its the wild variance between the different credit score agencies that annoys me.

  For example:-
  Experian think I am worth 999 out of 999 points
  Clear score think I am worth 520 out of 700
  Noddle say I have an excellent score of 660, but as they don’t say what the upper end of the scale is it is meaningless to me.

  Clear score say I have a negative which impacts my scoring. This is due to me not being on the electoral role. Strange, I have voted plenty times and been in the same house for 19 years. Also, clear score information has not changed at all since I first downloaded the app, so I think this credit agency is of little use.

  Noddle though appears to have all of my data fairly up to date, for a free resource it is excellent, and I would not bother with the experian fee based service unless you are signing up for the one month free trial for comparison purposes. I did this and found noddle has everything I need so cancelled experian within the free period.

  • Callum says:

    16 Feb16 February 09:03

    I cannot emphasise enough, your score means NOTHING. The very best it can do is give a very vague hint that you should maybe check your credit report – which you should be doing anyway.

  • Jen T says:

    16 Feb16 February 09:37

    I think ClearScore are excellent – although my ‘number’ hasn’t changed much, my other half’s one changes most months so it definitely reflects what’s going on. The app is good too.

• Mycity says:

  16 Feb16 February 06:11

  Good morning, what’s the general advice on keeping credit cards or calling to cancel? I’m talking here non Amex, reason I ask is I’m told conflicting thoughts, some say just keep them but don’t use them after you’ve had the bonus, others say cancel. I’m told it’s better for your credit score to just keep the cards but don’t use.

  Thanks

  • Mr Cinnamon says:

    16 Feb16 February 06:38

    My understanding is there may be a slight drop in your credit score when you cancel. But it is temporary and small.

    Personally if I am never going to use a card again I cancel it. I do not like redundant accounts hanging around. Saying that if I have a card with a non-refundable fee, I keep it active and cancel just before renwal. At present I have one card I rarely use that is active (MBNA Virgin White) but all 7 others are used at least 3 times a year, Each has a role (eg Lloyds Avios and Halifax Clarity for foreign transcations).

  • Genghis says:

    16 Feb16 February 07:21

    I read conflicting messages as well. If the credit card is free, I’ve always kept the card as this increases total credit and lowers credit utilisation (something I’ve been told improves credit scores by these agencies). I may be doing the wrong thing though. Are any HfPers experts in this area? If so,
    – should we cancel unused cards?
    – how often can we apply for a credit card without adverse effects?
    – is applying for 2 cards at same time better than having a 1 or 2 month gap between applications?
    – how generally can we increase the rating while continuing to apply for credit cards?

    • Raffles says:

      16 Feb16 February 08:01

      There is a view that you should keep one card open long term. This makes sense. If all your cards are under a year old, that sends a different message to someone like me who has had an Amex Plat for 15 years.

      • Mycity says:

        16 Feb16 February 08:20

        I’d love to know an answer, as if you have to many MBNA cards they refuse you unles you reduce your limits on some cards.

        • Callum says:

          16 Feb16 February 09:06

          There isn’t “an answer”. Some lenders like to see low credit utilisation, some don’t like high (even unused) limits as you could easily and quickly run up lots of debt.

          You need to find the right balance yourself (or with someone who can see your credit report and knows your financial situation).

  • The_Real_A says:

    16 Feb16 February 09:46

    I have 11 cards, it seems that the 12th one was too many. Then i looked at my credit score and realised i had a huge amount of available, but not used credit. So i reduced the limits, and got approved for card 12.

    The other factor is that lines of credit <36 months are considered a negative – as are multiple credit searches in the last 6 months.

• Mr Cinnamon says:

  16 Feb16 February 06:30

  I have used Noddle for years. It always seems up-to-date.

  If you have a credit card run by Barclaycard (inc. IHG and HHonors), you can get a free Experian credit score sent automatically every month your online account. This is an option you can activate via Barclaycard online services.

• John says:

  16 Feb16 February 06:38

  My score is quite low on Noddle. I applied for a card it said I only have 20% chance of getting and still got it so I think you have to take it with a pinch of salt, as with all credit reports. Your score is not the only think they look at.

  • John says:

    16 Feb16 February 06:46

    Different John – 20% chance means that 1 in 5 people like you will get it – you’re obviously the 1.

    Noddle keeps encouraging me to apply for things like Vanquis and Aqua. I’m not sure how useful a card with a £250 limit is useful when I spend that several times a week…

  • Genghis says:

    16 Feb16 February 07:14

    There’s no such thing as a person’s ‘credit score’. Credit companies whether Experian or Noddle assess your file and apply their own scoring to you. Amex may look at your file and have a completely different assessment.

• Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

  16 Feb16 February 06:50

  The article misses a key point: in the UK, you have three credit records, at Experian, Equifax and CallCredit. Different banks and card issuers will use different credit bureaux and your records at each bureau are unlikely to be identical.

  Noddle gets you visibility of your CallCredit file, but unfortunately CallCredit is probably the least popular bureau for card issuers. I would certainly recommended also signing up with ClearScore, which is a similar service for your Equifax file.

  You can only see your Experian file by paying (monthly subscription or statutory fee), so I wouldn’t bother unless you’re being unexpectedly rejected for credit.

  Finally, credit card eligibility searches at issuers’s websites and at places like MoneySuperMarket are pretty good these days. If you’re getting a 9+ score then that indicates that the issuer has worked with the company that handles the searches to align their scoring.

  • Alan says:

    16 Feb16 February 10:18

    Definitely a key point, Andrew – Noddle covers one of the three credit reference agencies but then you need to check the other two as well.

• Steve says:

  16 Feb16 February 07:07

  Never like something for nothing, so does anyone know how Noddle (or Clearscore) are funded?

  • revlou says:

    16 Feb16 February 07:30

    They both offer to “match your credit score to products” (eg credit cards) so I assume this is how they make money.

    • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

      16 Feb16 February 08:22

      Spot on for ClearScore, although it’s still early days for their service. Noddle is operated by CallCredit themselves, so arguably there’s less pressure to turn a profit. CallCredit didn’t make it to the game of monetising a monthly subscription so there was little opportunity cost to giving the service away for free.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.