Does Changing My Address Affect My Credit Score?

The Complete Guide to Understand if Changing Address Affects Your Credit Score

How does changing my address affect your credit score?

We all change address. Some move more than others, but it is all a part of life. Have you ever wondered ‘will changing my address could affect my credit score?’ Or, can moving to a bad area can lower your credit score? We will answer these and more right now. In this article we will see how your address is actually used by credit reference agencies, what effect changing your address can have and things you can actually do to help yourself.

With that in mind, let’s jump right in!

The number of addresses on your credit file

Before we jump in, it’s important to remember that keeping information on our credit report is up to date and accurate is really important. Credit reference agencies (Equifax, Experian & Call Credit) use your address for two reasons. Firstly, they use your address to confirm your identity. Secondly, they want to match all of your information to you. Now, the good news is that the number of addresses on your credit file actually has no relationship to your credit rating. It is a myth. Interestingly, the five biggest factors which do affect your credit score in order of significance are;

1) Your Payment History
2) Your credit usage and the amount of debt you have
3) The age of your accounts
4) The types of credit
5) The number of enquires made by prospective lenders

Credit Myths

In considering if changing your address affects your credit score you must also consider other key questions. For instance, If you’ve ever asked yourself: ‘can my address be blacklisted?’ or ‘can moving to a bad area affect my credit score?’ you wouldn’t be alone. There is good news. The fact of the matter is that credit reference agencies do not have blacklisted areas or parts of the country in which the very act of moving there would affect your score. So, moving in of itself won’t reduce your credit score but there are other related issues which we should be aware of. Remember, you do not need to update credit reference agencies about your change of address directly. They will be informed when you update all of your credit accounts with the correct address.

Did you know: According to recent studies, people in their late 20’s tend to have poorer credit scores that those in their late teens!

Getting ahead with your credit score

This might sound obvious, but if you have changed address make you sure that you inform all of the relevant companies and institutions about that address change. Otherwise, you may continue to receive bills at your old address which might go unpaid and, in turn, have an adverse effect on your credit score. If you want help doing this online quickly and securely, you can jump on our online change of address form.

Good advice

We have spoken through how credit reference agencies use our address to match and align our credit information. Therefore, if your address is incorrect or incomplete, it can have a negative impact on your credit score. Said another way: it’s not that changing your address negatively affects your credit score itself, it’s having incomplete information on your credit report that does. This is why it is important to have all of your active credit accounts registered under the same address.

How to improve your credit score UK

With all of this said, here is some solid advice you can follow so you know how to imrpove your credit score in the UK and beyond. These easy steps will improve your credit score when moving – because we like to helpful over here at SlothMove!

(1) Make sure that you inform all of your companies that you’re changing address. This is something you can get started with and save a lot of time by using our online change of address service.

(2) Try to keep all of your payments on Direct Debit. Moving home can be costly, so it’s important you don’t run too much debt up on credit cards and even potentially miss key payments that will affect your credit score

(3) As soon as you arrive in your new place, register on the electoral roll. You can see how to update your address on the electoral roll using our guide. When that and your active credit accounts are registered to the same address, it will have a positive impact on your credit score. Make this a priority.

(4) It’s simple again, but just keep an eye on your credit score. It is advised that this is a sensible thing to do regularly anyway, but it is especially important to keep on top of when moving home. This is something you can easily check on at ClearScore or Experian, for example.

What is a bad credit score? UK

What is a bad credit score? It’s a great question. What we’re really asking is, is my credit score lower than it should be? and how does my credit score rank? In understanding the answer, we must first appreciate that there are three main credit reference agencies in the UK: Experian, Equifax & Call Credit.

They all have different criteria as to what they consider a ‘good score’ and apply different weightings, so you might find that you fare better with some credit reference agencies and worse with others. Here are a few rough guides to get you started:

Experian	Equifax	Call Credit
Used by 73% of lenders	Used by 55% of lenders	Used by 32% of lenders
Maximum score: 999	Maximum score: 700	Maximum score: 710
Average UK Score: 740	Average UK Score: 380	Average UK Score: 611
Poor credit score: 0 - 720	Poor credit score: 0 - 379	Poor credit score: Band 1-2

Use the above table to gauge where your credit score health is at. Bear in mind that most of the credit agencies will tell you how you’re fairing once you’re on their website. And, as above, there are many ways to increase your credit score – so don’t fret if you’re not where you want to be.

Your Address, Credit Score and Beyond

So, hopefully this answers the question: does changing address affect your credit score? We hope that you’ve found this article useful and you know how changing address affects your credit score. We appreciate that there is a lot to know when it comes to credit scores, so if you want to learn more there is a lot of information on the credit reference agencies websites. If you are moving home feel free to check out our guide on how to save money when moving home or our moving house checklist to take you through everything you need to know. It’s fantastic, we promise.

Credit score Q&A

Will changing my address affect my credit score?

The short answer is no. The act of changing address itself does not affect your credit score. What tends to affect your credit score is not updating your address or clearing bills when moving home. So, will changing address affect my credit rating? No, providing you update all of your addresses and don’t leave anything in arrears

Does changing address affect getting finance?

You might have heard of people being declined for finance shortly after changing address, leaving them to think that changing address affects them getting finance. The truth is, changing address does not affect your ability to get finance. The reason some people might be declined is because not all of their addresses have migrated across to their new home, meaning from a credit agency’s perspective you’re split across multiple addresses. So, as long as all of your addresses are up to date you won’t have any issues. To make sure that they’re all up to date, head over to our online change of address service.

I have had a recent change of address, will this affect my credit score?

It will not affect your credit score, so long as all of your addresses are registered to your new address. Also make sure that you are not in arrears. We can help you update your address with all of your companies online, within 5 minutes. If that sounds helpful, you can update your address online today.

How can I improve my credit score?

Tell all of your companies that you’re moving home, keep all of your payments on a DD & make sure that you register on the electoral roll as soon as you move. Also, be sure to check your credit score online regularly and follow any suggestions they offer.