Understanding your credit score

You can request a copy of the information a credit reference agency holds on your file. You’ll need to give them your title, name, date of birth and address. You can find further details in a leaflet from the Information Commissioner's Office called Credit Explained.

If alternative formats are required please contact the credit reference agency providing your score to discuss this.

The three main credit reference agencies (CRA)– Experian, Equifax and TransUnion – have different scales to measure credit scores. For example; 700 may be considered "poor" on one CRA but "excellent" with another. 

You can get a free, independent score from each credit reference agency which tells you the band you’re in.

There’s no universal minimum credit score needed to get things like a loan or mortgage as different providers have different lending criteria. But your credit rating must be considered good enough by your provider.

It can take some time to recover from a missed payment.

Try to make your repayments on time and recover accounts you’ve missed payments on. You could speak to your lender or a debt charity for support to help make your repayments. If you’re a NatWest customer and struggling financially, see what support we can offer you.

If you have a credit card or arranged overdraft, using all or most of your limit can suggest you’re financially stretched which could have a negative effect on your credit score. One way to avoid that is to avoid using all of your available limit.

While higher credit limits can help improve your credit score you should only apply for borrowing that you need and manage any borrowing responsibly.

A soft credit search is a search of your credit report by lenders when you request a quote for credit or use an eligibility checker tool. Soft searches do not have an impact on your credit score, and only you will be able to see if any lenders have performed a soft search on your report.

A hard credit search is made on your credit report when you make a full application for borrowing and these are saved on your credit report and they can boost or lower your score. Hard searches are also visible to other lenders on your credit report.