Multi-Bureau – what are you missing?

 

Introduction

The UK has three consumer credit reference agencies, Callcredit, Equifax and Experian.  Whilst each has a different product set, the core information held by the bureaux is very similar and breaks down to the following categories:

 

  • Electoral Roll – provided by local councils
  • Public Data such as CCJs and Bankruptcies – provided by Registry Trust
  • Shared Credit Account data – provided by lenders

 

Given that the source of Electoral Roll and Public data records is common across the three bureaux and the majority of lenders contribute to all three bureaux, the natural assumption would be that a credit search undertaken on each of the bureaux would produce identical results.  However, this is very far from being the case.

Whilst some of the differences can be explained by the small number of lenders that share data with only one credit bureau, the overwhelming discrepancies are because of the variation in loading, storing and retrieval mechanisms.  In effect, the data has been filed but on occasions it cannot be found again at the point it is required.  As all three bureaux suffer from this, it is not surprising that the credit report provided by any single credit bureau may not contain a complete account of an individual’s credit record.

 

Quantifying the differences

 

Electoral Roll Matches

+15%

Public data records

+24%

Credit Accounts

+12%

 

Note:  figures derived from additional data identified by taking a second credit search.

 

In terms of indebtedness, a second search identified that the worst 5% indebted individuals had 23% higher unsecured monthly payments and 26% higher secured monthly payments than that identified from the first search.

Benefits

Acceptance Rates

+14%

Bad Debt

+20%

ID verifications

+20%

Other non tangible benefits in having the ability to search a second credit bureau are:

 

  • Resilience – backup when primary bureau is unavailable
  • More automated decisions
  • Fairer decisions

 

For information on implementing multi-bureau, click here