Hooray, we will not score this summer

7 June 2010

With the World Cup just around the corner Kensington must be one of the only firms in the country boasting that we won’t score this summer.

As many readers will know, our proposition is based on our ability to make a decision on customers’ circumstances, not a credit score. This means we can consider clients who don’t fit a rigid scoring system.

But there is still some confusion about the difference between a credit score and a credit check.

A credit score is a calculation that attributes values to various criteria and rates an application against these, attributing to it a score that either passes or fails the level set for the product.

The score takes into account information from a check carried out with a credit bureau. Some of this may weigh in an applicant’s favour, some may go against them and some may rule them out.

If the applicant doesn’t have enough information on their report for the system to attribute them a score this could also rule them out.

But not credit scoring doesn’t mean that a customer’s credit report is not checked.

All lenders need accurate data on credit commitments and performance - it’s how this is used that is the difference between a lender that credit scores and one that does not.

By assessing each case on its merits lenders can make pragmatic assessments of a customer’s credit report against the backdrop of their circumstances and take a holistic lending decision.

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