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I just generated my credit report and it gave a score in the orange. Looking through the details in the report, I see only one "red mark" -- so presume this is the only thing that is weighing the score down -- against an energy bill that was supposedly paid 6 months in arrears, in 2015.

Firstly, this is not true: I always pay my bills when they are invoiced. This is even obvious from the report detail, as it shows a correct payment every month followed by this spurious entry. Secondly, this appears to be during a time when I was switching energy provider: This is meant to be a seamless process and while experience has taught me that it's far from seamless, the last thing I expected was for it to mess with my credit rating. Because it was a supplier transition from so long ago, I don't have any paperwork for this any more; I was only a customer of the original supplier by virtue of it being grandfathered to me when I acquired the property. I'm not even a customer of the new supplier any more; I've switched again in the meantime and moved home twice!

Is it normal for just one minor thing -- a monthly energy bill on the order of £30 -- to so adversely affect ones rating? Given my lack of documentation, how do I even begin going about correcting this?

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    How credit scores are determined is somewhat opaque. It may help if you can provide more precise details: "gave a score in the orange" on its own probably doesn't mean much, without knowing whose score you are using (I believe there are three in the UK), and by how much it is "in the orange" (you might be one point below the next-higher band, or one point above the next-lower one).
    – TripeHound
    Apr 8 at 11:24
  • In the US, one of the best resources on helping with this, is a mortgage loan officer. Their help is normally free if you are using their services and they know credit reports and how to clean them up very well.
    – Pete B.
    Apr 8 at 12:05
  • @TripeHound I don't know what's "too much personal information" in this regard, which is why I omitted the exact figure. The report was a multi-agency one and the "red mark" was reported by Equifax.
    – Xophmeister
    Apr 8 at 12:34
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Credit scores are pretty meaningless. Each company that runs a credit check on you will have their own criteria and will make their own decision.

The important thing is that the information in your credit file should be accurate. Given that it's the Equifax report that is incorrect, I'd start by getting a report directly from them to see if it gives any additional information. At https://www.equifax.co.uk/Products/credit/credit-score.html they offer a free trial to their paid credit report service, but if you head to the footer there is a small link for the "Statutory Credit Report", which is a totally free service (although it does ask for credit card details to verify identity).

To correct your error report, you should contact Equifax. They provide more information about the process and their contact details in their online help at https://help.equifax.co.uk/EquifaxOnlineHelp/s/

Alternatively the service you've used to check your credit score may have a way to raise the dispute with Equifax.

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