Does changing your address affect your credit score?

Changing your address doesn’t directly impact your credit score, but some of the outcomes of moving home can. So if you’ve just got the keys to your new place or will be soon, it’s important to know how your credit health could be affected. 

Let’s clarify the relationship between your address and your credit report, shine a light on the things that could have an impact on your credit score, and outline how to steer clear of any potential surprises.  

Why is my address linked to my credit report?

Having your address on your credit report helps credit reference agencies ‘find you’ and verify your details. 

Credit reports can include both current and previous addresses. Your credit report also features your full name and  date of birth.

Can addresses themselves affect my credit rating?

Some people worry that when they switch addresses, the previous tenant or resident’s finances and related information might influence their credit report and score. The good news is that this isn’t the case. 

Your credit rating is based on your information alone, not the history of occupants’ information attached to a specific address. This means that changing addresses, even multiple times, shouldn’t affect your credit score.

Can changing addresses indirectly affect my credit score?

Yes, it can. Here’s how:

• Unpaid bills linked to a previous address. This can happen unintentionally, such as when someone doesn’t notify the relevant companies of their address change, so they miss the invoice and reminders. 

• Electoral Roll. Being registered on the Electoral Roll at your current address is important for your credit health. So, after changing addresses, it’s important to quickly update your registration at the new address. 

• Opening new accounts can potentially cause a temporary dip in your credit score. This is because opening these accounts can trigger credit checks, and having a lot of ‘hard’ checks (ones that show all your credit report’s information) in a short period could impact your credit score. Lenders might use hard checks in different situations, such as when you apply for a mortgage or credit card. So, if your lender conducts them too (not all of them do), more searches will be recorded on your credit report overall. It’s beneficial to limit hard checks to around one a month, or 12 a year, to reduce the likelihood of an effect on your credit score.

It's worth noting that even if changing address doesn't affect your credit score, your list of addresses is recorded on your credit report. This means that lenders can see if you’ve switched addresses frequently when they perform hard checks. 

But address changes are just one factor that credit providers might consider. They’ll also be interested in the other factors that make up your credit report, such as:

• Payment history (for credit cards, bills, etc.). While a single missed payment is unlikely to seriously impact your credit score, consistently missing payments and accumulating arrears can.

• Credit utilisation rate, which is the amount of available credit that you’ve used expressed as a percentage. It can be beneficial to keep your credit utilisation rate at around 30%, as high percentages can be viewed negatively by lenders.

• The length of your credit history. Building a credit history shows lenders how you manage debt. For example, consistently making repayments on time is a positive indicator to lenders that they can rely on you to pay them back. Having little to no credit history could negatively impact your chances of getting credit, because lenders won’t have an idea of how you manage debt – making you more of a risk to lend to. That said, you shouldn’t take credit for the sake of it. Only apply for credit if you can afford to pay it back. If you need help weighing up your options, consider speaking to a financial advisor.

• Credit searches. If your credit report has a lot of recorded hard checks in a short period of time, it can signal too much reliance on credit, which lenders may see as a negative sign. 

How to prevent an address change from affecting your credit score

While moving doesn't directly harm your credit score, there are some steps you can take to prevent any indirect consequences. These include:

1. Updating your Electoral Roll status

After changing addresses, don’t forget to update your registry on the Electoral Roll. This allows lenders to verify you at your current address, potentially making credit applications smoother. 

2. Updating your utility providers

It’s important to update your previous utility providers (for gas, electric, water, internet, etc) about an address change to avoid a situation where they continue to send bills to your previous property. Otherwise, if you fail to make these payments as a result, your credit score can be negatively impacted. Also, if you’re transferring to a new provider instead, it’s important to clear any debts with your previous utility provider. 

3. Updating your bank and credit providers

Updating your bank, credit card providers, and other creditors of your address change ensures that bills, reminders, and other notifications are sent to the correct place. It also helps avoid missed payments, reducing the risk of a negative impact on your credit score.

4. Monitoring your credit report

If the address you provide to lenders doesn’t match how your address appears on your credit report, your application might be declined. You can get incorrect information put right, but it’s best to do so before you apply for credit. And it’s important to leave enough of a window for the credit reference agencies to update your information. It’s also a good practice to check for any other errors or discrepancies by monitoring your credit report over time. 

Errors can occur if you fail to update all creditors about your address change (so they still link you to another or incorrect address), or because someone you are financially associated with (share credit with) is connected to another address.

Sometimes, data entry mistakes performed by credit reference agencies or Electoral Roll staff can create small errors – such as indicating you live at house number 34 Merton Road, instead of 36. So, to avoid any future issues when applying for credit (incorrect info can slow credit applications down even if they don’t affect the outcome), it’s best to resolve errors as soon as you can. You might also come across ‘linked addresses’ on your credit report, too: they’re address changes that a lender has reported to the credit reference agencies. 

Recap: Does changing your address affect your credit score?

While changing your address won’t directly affect your credit score, it can impact it indirectly. For example, if a utility or credit provider still mails your bills to the old address, missing the payments could negatively affect your score. Addresses themselves don’t influence credit scores, so you don’t have to worry about a previous tenant or resident’s finances influencing your credit health.  

To be on the safe side, it’s best to update your Electoral Roll status, utility providers, and credit providers as soon as possible after changing your address. And it’s good practice to check your credit report for any errors including making sure your addresses appear as they should.