Credit Checks: They’re Not Just A Credit Card Or Loan.
When I moved from Italy to London last year, I obviously had need of renting an apartment. This was something I’d done a lot of times, throughout my adult life. Having lived in 5 different countries, I was very familiar with the whole thing, and regarded it as a pretty straightforward process I could manage to do blindfolded.
In a nutshell, here’s how it’d go: I’d look at the property, decide to take it, put down a deposit, provide my work references, sign the lease, get the keys, and move in. Pretty simple, huh?
But when I moved to London, I was in for a little surprise that I never had encountered in over 10 years of being a tenant. I was asked to go through a credit check. And let me tell you… I became seriously worried. You see, I had already lived in England before (in Birmingham). While there, I worked as a manager in the hospitality industry, and I had an apartment, which 4 of us shared in the costs.
When I left Birmingham for Italy, a year later, I found myself without a job. A bit of money was saved up, and I felt comfortable that I would find a job soon enough. Besides, I hadn’t planned on staying away from the U.K. for long, anyway. I figured I’d be back there within 4-6 months, back in a well-paying management role. So in the meantime, I got by with using my credit card very freely. Too freely.
Well, to make a long story short, things did not work out as expected. It was almost 4 months before I was able to find a job, and I had gone severely overdraft with my credit card. And I had no way of paying it back. Fortunately, things eventually picked up… but not until after the damage had been done. In time, I repaid my outstanding credit card balance, even well after the card had expired. It all worked out in the end.
Or so it seemed.
Fast forward five years, and here I suddenly was in London, with a big problem: would I pass this credit check?
The implications were horrific. If my credit score wasn’t good enough, I’d be in a world of trouble. I had a little boy, and my wife to look after – what would happen, if we had nowhere to stay?
I spent days worrying over my bad credit. Would it still have an impact, five years later? How long would it stay on my file? What was going to happen? Was there anything I could do?
Tragically, my credit check fell through. I was still flagged. The landlord would not put me in the tennancy agreement, if he could not insure me. And to be insured, I needed a good credit rating. I still don’t (and can’t) understand why, but that was just the way it was.
So now, here I was… lost, desperate, and not knowing what to do in a hopeless situation.
Fortunately, a friend with a long-standing good credit agreed to step in as a guarantor at the last minute, and I was able to get on to the tennancy agreement. Otherwise, I’d have been out on the streets. Along with my wife and son.
The fact of the matter is, if I had known that I was going to be asked for a credit check to stay in the apartment, I would have done things very differently. Knowing the risk of being shot down, I would likely not have gone to London, where I would have had serious problems.
This was because I had the whole history of bad credit looming over my shoulder, and I didn’t know if it was going to have any part in me getting the tennancy agreement or not. After all, it had been over 5 years ago. Doubts were killing me.
In the end, I consider myself extremely fortunate, because a guarantor stepped in. Most people aren’t that lucky, and finding out they would be denied a tenancy would be disastrous… especially with a family.
What I do know is, if I’d had good credit, I would’ve had nothing to worry about. And if I had known that my credit score was still bad, I wouldn’t have put myself in that situation in the first place.
Save yourself from the unexpected surprises, and find out your credit score now!
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Posted by Credit Specialist
on Jul 17 2010. Filed under Credit Score.
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