Clearing up credit scores: How do people in the UK feel about credit scores?

We all know numbers are key when it comes to our money - whether it’s money saved on the monthly shop, your household income, or how much money you pay to your credit card each month. Our new research has shown that the majority of people in the UK believe we need to improve our understanding of one number in particular: credit scores.

ClearScore’s research of 1,000 adults from across the UK has found that a massive 8 in 10 (82%) think people in the UK need to know more about credit management and credit scores. But, what is the UK’s average credit score? How does the nation feel about credit scores? How much do they understand about their credit scores, and how are credit scores influencing Brits’ financial decisions?

Check out the full results of our research below.

Burying your head in the sand about money and credit scores could cause you to have negative emotions towards your finances, potentially resulting in bad spending habits. Understanding money and credit scores is crucial to help improve how we feel about them. Our research found that a third (35%) of people in the UK say they don’t really understand their credit score, and when we tested their knowledge on what affects your credit score, 1 in 7 (13%) were unable to do so correctly.

Take a look at some of the most common misconceptions in the UK below:

• Over 1 in 4 (27%) think their salary can affect their credit score.
• Over 1 in 5 (22%) people think their debit card usage can directly affect their score.
• Over 1 in 6 (17%) of people think how often they check their credit score can affect it.
• 1 in 6 (15%) think their area or address can affect their score.
• 1 in 10 (10%) think how much they use cash can affect their credit score.

For the most part, credit scores aren’t taught in schools, which can make them feel like a bit of an enigma when you first learn about them. Our research found that most people learned about credit scores by reading about it online (40%). The second-most common way to learn about credit scores is through parents (16%) and then friends (10%). Just 2% of the respondents in our research said they learned about credit scores at school, so it might not be surprising that almost 4 out of 5 (78%) people told us they’d like to see improvements in how young people are taught about credit scores in the UK.

Our research found that over 1 in 6 (17%) think checking your credit score can affect it, but happily, we can confirm that you can check your credit score as much as you like, with us showing you an updated score every 2 weeks.

Lenders send information such as repayment history to Equifax once a month, but we update your report once a week if anything changes. But, how often should you check your credit score? Our data shows that the average Brit checks their credit report 23 times a year - that’s almost 2 times each month. Interestingly, 18-25-year-olds, the group with the lowest average credit scores, check their scores the least, with those aged 46-60 checking it the most - 34 times a year.

What are the benefits of checking your credit report? Checking your credit report allows you to understand your current credit position. It’ll also allow you to spot and dispute any credit report mistakes, make sure your payments are reported correctly, and can even help you to improve your score in the long run because you’ll have a better understanding of what’s affecting your score both positively and negatively.

For most people, our understanding and feelings associated with money stem from the understanding and relationships we have with it as children. Our research shows that 3 in 10 (30%) people in the UK frequently worry about their credit score, with those aged 18-44 almost three times more likely to worry about their credit score than those aged 45+ (44% vs 15%).

What’s more:

• More than half of adults (56%) say they feel more financially secure when their credit score goes up and 2 in 5 (40%) feel insecure about their finances when their score goes down.
• 2 in 5 (40%) people say their credit score makes them worry about their future finances, such as buying a house or securing a loan.

When it came to the emotions people associated most with credit scores, our research found those aged 25-34 and those aged 35-44 are more likely than any other age group to associate negative emotions with their credit scores. This coincides with the UK’s average ages for many of life’s biggest milestones, according to ONS data - moving out of your parents' home (27), having a baby (29), getting married (32), and owning your own home (34).

Interestingly, the majority of the emotions (56%) felt by 18-24-year-olds towards their credit score were positive, with positive emotions rising again with age, with 64% in 45-54-year-olds, 63% in 55-64-year-olds and 85% in 65+.

Our research found that more than half (54%) of people say their credit score affects whether or not they’ll apply for credit at that time. It’s not uncommon to check your credit score before applying for new credit. Checking your credit report before you apply for new credit will let you know what sort of things lenders will be able to see before deciding whether or not to give you credit.

Interestingly, our research also found that 52% of British adults want to improve their credit score - that’s more than 24.8 million people2. 25-34-year-olds are the most likely to say they want to improve their credit score. This is also the age group for the average age of first-time buyers in the UK (33.4 years old).

Take a look at our 10 simple tips for how to improve your credit score.

When looking at the credit behaviours that can affect our credit scores, our research found that a fifth (18%) of adults in the UK say that they’ve missed payments before. Interestingly, women were 1.4 times more likely to say they’ve missed payments than men (21% vs 15%).

We also found that:

• A fifth (18%) of adults in the UK say they’ve missed payments before – the equivalent of nearly 8.6 million people.
• Over 1 in 6 (16%) people say they’ve been rejected on a credit application – more than 7.6 million.
• Around 1 in 6 (14%) say they’ve forgone savings to pay off debts – more than 6.6 million.
• 1 in 7 (13%) people have taken out a balance transfer card to clear the balance on another – more than 6.2 million.
• 10% of people have taken out a loan to consolidate debts – more than 4.7 million.
• 7% of people say they have taken out a payday loan – over 3.3million Brits.

While finances can sometimes feel daunting, it's important to not let them define you. If you find yourself having negative feelings towards your credit score or other finances, it might be worth spending some time to become more aware of your emotions and behaviours towards it. They might be causing you to fall into bad financial habits without you even realising it. Finding out your money personality is a really effective method of helping you manage your money better in the long term.

You can also check out the following blogs to help you improve your knowledge on credit scores and managing your money:

• What is a credit score?
• What is a balance transfer credit card: Everything you wanted to know
• Money support when you need it most
• 4 reasons why your credit score hasn’t changed

• All research was conducted via a 3Gem survey of 1,000 adults (18+) living in the UK. The survey was conducted between 29th January and 1st February 2024.
• (24,820,381.56) Based on 2022 ONS figuresthat there are 47,731,503 18+ year olds in the UK.