James
What does it mean when an account is listed as 'revolving'? Also why do some records refer to activity in the last 36 months and the last 32 months? Also, why do some records say 'file updated for the period to XX' which differs between entries? Now that I no longer have a joint account with my old flatmate does that mean my name will not be searched when she applied for credit? For the linked addresses, does the source refer to the company that has searched? i.e. Egg are stated twice but I have never had an account with them (although tried to!). Sorry for all the questions!!
Camilla, London
Camilla
Don't be sorry! Answering your questions is what I get paid for, although you could actually have found all of the answers in our booklet 'Your credit report explained'. You can download a copy from our Learning Zone. Revolving credit refers to a facility you can use over and over again, like a store card or credit card, but unlike a loan which ends as soon as you make the last payment. On any credit account on your report you will see your recent repayment record, reflected as a row of characters. We call them status codes. If you've made all your payments on time you should see a row of zeros. You'll find all the codes explained in the above booklet. Your report displays the most recent 12 codes - i.e. 12 months of payments. It also summarises your codes for the last three years, or less if the account hasn't been open that long (32 months, for instance). That's why you'll see statements like 'In the past 36 months, the number of status 1-2 is 0'. That basically means that your account hasn't been either one or two payments behind over the past three years. If you used to have joint credit with your ex-flatmate then you probably need to formally ask us to unlink your credit reports. You can do this through this site or by writing to us. We call the process 'disassociation'. Finally, linked addresses are created in one of two ways: by accounts moving between addresses or by searches containing two or more addresses. As you didn't manage to get an account with Egg it would appear that, in this case, the link was created by Egg when they searched your report.
James