Your credit score via your online account

A credit score is calculated from the information in your credit report; it gives a general picture of your current financial position.

Your credit report contains all of the information a credit reference agency (CRA) holds on you under your name and address; this includes information on how well you have managed with borrowing money in the past, whether you are registered to vote (known as being on the electoral roll), who has viewed your credit report, why they have viewed it, what they have viewed and when they viewed it.

The CRAs create a credit report for you based on information supplied to them by lenders, utilities providers and other public sources, including electoral register information and any judgments, insolvencies, and bankruptcies.

A Credit Reference Agency (CRA) holds details of an individual’s credit history at their addresses. The UK has three main credit reference agencies – TransUnion, Equifax and Experian.

Lowell are working with TransUnion to present credit information in your online account to help you understand more about your credit score and what factors have contributed to this score.

Local authorities, courts, and credit providers share information with CRAs to promote responsible lending, support debt recovery, and to prevent over indebtedness and fraud.

For example, when you make an application for credit, the credit provider will approach a CRA for information about your credit history, to check you are who you say you are and to help them make a fair and responsible lending decision.

Your credit score that we present in your online account refreshes every seven days.

Lowell only uses the data provided by TransUnion to present your credit score to you which is available to you through your online account via our website or the Lowell mobile app. Lowell will never store or use your credit score to manage your Lowell accounts or make any decisions (including automated decisions) about you or your account. We will also never use your credit score for any form of marketing. So, if you submit a request to exercise any of your rights under the data protection legislation to Lowell, the information in your Credit Score would not be included in Lowell's response to you.

TransUnion International UK Limited (trading as TransUnion) is one of the UK’s major credit reference agencies (CRAs). CRAs hold details of an individual’s credit history at their addresses. Local authorities, courts, and credit providers share information with CRAs to promote responsible lending, support debt recovery, and to prevent over-indebtedness and fraud.

Your credit score in your online account is powered by TransUnion. We'll present credit information supplied by TransUnion to customers who opt into this service via their online account with Lowell.

The credit score Lowell shows you is calculated based on information held on your credit report, that is obtained by TransUnion from various sources. TransUnion calculate the score via various algorithms and calculations applied to your credit history information.

There are many factors that affect your credit score. So, if you want to improve you credit score, learning what factors affect it is a good place to start. By accessing your credit score you'll see which factors are affecting your score so you can decide what actions to take, if any to improve your score - you're in control.

We’ve outlined four areas which may have an impact on your score below:

Your financial account performance history
By maintaining payments and steering clear of credit limits, you can start building up good credit history. This will demonstrate that you can responsibly borrow money and afford to pay it back.

Judgments, bankruptcies and insolvencies
Records of judgments and insolvencies stay on your credit report for 6 years (or even longer in some cases).
Lenders will consider you higher risk as you have not met your past credit commitments. If you have been unable to repay your debts once, you may be unable to repay them again.

People you are financially linked to
Whilst people you’re financial connected to won’t have an impact on your credit score, they can influence how likely you are to get accepted for credit.

Make sure you regularly check your credit report to ensure all your financial associates are still relevant. If they are no longer relevant you should raise a dispute to remove them from your credit file, you can do this by requesting a copy of your https://www.transunionstatreport.co.uk/CreditReport/AboutYou.

Rest assured, just living with someone doesn’t create a financial connection. You need to have a joint loan, mortgage or bank account to create financial links.

Being on the Electoral Register
Being on the Electoral Register is an easy way to show lenders you are at a stable address history and can be contacted for any money owed. If you are not already on the Electoral Register, you can be added via: www.gov.uk/register-to-vote.

No, this is a free service.

We will provide information on what impacts your credit score and indicate actions you could take that might improve your score. There is no guarantee that your score will improve by taking these actions as credit scores are influenced by a multitude of factors.

If you choose to view your credit score via your online account, you’ll be shown your current credit score which is provided to us by TransUnion. We'll update the credit score every seven days.

No. We're showing you a credit score that is provided by TransUnion, one of the three main UK Credit Reference Agencies (CRAs). The other CRAs have their own credit scoring systems.

When you opt to view your credit score via your online account, access is subject to our terms and conditions, verification and matching your details with the records that TransUnion hold. This is to ensure that the personal information contained within each individual's credit report is carefully protected. There are many reasons why a match might not be made but it can sometimes be because of a recent house move or not being on the electoral roll. If your details have recently changed then please let us know so we can update your details.

Only you have access to your credit score via your online account. The score is provided by TransUnion, one of the UK's major credit reference agencies.