Applying for credit cards? Check your full credit report online, for free, with Noddle

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A lot of posts on Head for Points are dedicated to collecting miles and points from credit card sign-up bonuses. And there is a good reason for this – credit card sign-up deals are by far the easiest way to accumulate a large number of points quickly.

Your credit record is very important, and it is well worth taking a look at it every so often to ensure that it is up to date. You want to ensure, for example, that no erroneous information is listed against your name, in terms of missed payments or cards you have. It also enables you to watch out for any attempts at ID theft.

Noddle

You have always been able to order a copy of your credit record by post from Experian for a small fee.

A website called Noddle (www.noddle.co.uk), though, takes this one step further in two ways:

You can view your credit report immediately, online
There is no fee whatsoever, ever

Noddle will automatically update your data as long as you log-in to the site once every three months

I have using Noddle since I first mentioned it on HfP 18 months ago. It is far better than the ‘one month free trial’ offered by Experian on their comparable offering.

If you are churning credit cards to build up your miles, it is worth taking a look at Noddle and see what data the banks already hold on you. (You need to be on a UK computer for it to work, note.) You’ve nothing to lose and you may be surprised by what you find.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

General

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

James says:

16 Feb16 February 07:16

Noddle is only one service. You could potentially have a very different score on Experian and that is used by most banks. It’s not as comprehensive.
Kathryn says:

16 Feb16 February 07:21

Useful to know that these things are available for free. I tried to switch my electricity last year and got rejected on the credit check which seemed bizarre – I already pay for Experian and that said I had an excellent rating.

So I found out that the electricity company used call credit and signed up with them too. Turned out that someone had recently opened a TSB bank account in my name, so had to get the identity fraud people involved.

All the other credit stuff was consistent, but I still had a poor rating with one and an excellent rating with the other which I couldn’t get my head around!
http://finchannel.com/ says:

16 Feb16 February 07:28

http://finchannel.com/

Check your credit report online FREE with Noddle
Pug106 says:

16 Feb16 February 08:37

OT, please, have spent the required amounts on Amex Prem and Gold cards to receive the miles and a 2-4-1. Would like to carry on using a credit card for rewards. Where should I go next please – Virgin cards? TIA
- Genghis says:
  
  16 Feb16 February 08:45
  
  Depends what you want to earn. SPG? The Hilton card for free night weekend stay?
  - Pug106 says:
    
    16 Feb16 February 15:41
    
    Thank you. Yes, I’ve just received Hilton cards for OH and me.
    - Genghis says:
      
      16 Feb16 February 16:17
      
      Have you already recommended your OH for the BAPP and the Amex Gold/Plat? Playing referral ping pong with the OH can earn serious points.
- Rob says:
  
  16 Feb16 February 09:41
  
  As you only have a few months, I assume, until your BA Amex 241 year re-starts for the next voucher, you might as well go for something which can give you a miles or bonus hit in a fairly short period. Virgin is OK but only if you think you’d earn enough miles for a good redemption. Otherwise, you might as well get, say, SPG Amex to trigger a bonus you can convert to Avios.
  - Pug106 says:
    
    16 Feb16 February 15:42
    
    Good idea, thanks. Will have a look.
George says:

16 Feb16 February 09:35

Back in the days that I was going for a mortgage (dark days indeed – I didn’t have any credit cards at the time.. ) I signed up for Checkmyfile. It delivers reports on what Equifax, Experian and Callcredit have on you, so no stone left unturned. Very happy with their service and their comprehensive breakdown of accounts. Considering I have an aversion to credit scoring agencies, I’m happy to give my money elsewhere.

On a seperate note, does anyone know if using a charge card on an everyday basis, has a smaller effect on your score (positive or negative), than if you were to use a credit card?

Also, if you take out a credit card and cancel it within 15-20 days, (eg I took out the SPG card, hit the 2k, paid it in full, cancelled it before the statement even had the chance to show up) how does it affect your score? I’m asking because the SPG card that I took out and cancelled, never even made an appearance in my credit accounts.
- The_Real_A says:
  
  16 Feb16 February 09:54
  
  A charge card appears as an open line of credit, and the amount of the “bill” is sent to the agency each month. This impacts:
  1) Number of credit searches in last 6 months
  2) Skews your rolling average of open credit for 36 months
  3) If you have multiple AMEX cards, each one shows as a new search and a seperate account on your file.
  
  I have tested with MBNA and AMEX – If you clear your balance before the date that the statement is produced then the “debt” does not appear on the credit file. Its the staement balance that is transferred across.
  - Talay says:
    
    16 Feb16 February 11:15
    
    This is true as I have large transactional balances each month but clear them monthly also. Yet for the purposes of someone viewing my file, it may look like I have a permanent debt of tens of thousands which goes up and down a little each month.
    
    The picture to the observer is quite different to the reality !
David Douglas says:

16 Feb16 February 10:31

I would comment that I am not impressed with the Noddle website compared to other free products available. I signed up for it and Clear Score and the trial Experian product to identify errors that one financial institution had made, (and though the institution did compensate me, they did not tidy up the information they sent to credit agencies, so I had to do this).
Experian and ClearScore (Equifax) corrected the information within a few days of being advised,after 1 e-mail,but Noddle seemed to do everything they could to avoid the correction, leading to protracted e-mail correspondence over a number of weeks.
chaz says:

16 Feb16 February 10:35

You need a bionic memory to verify your ID. Having / had a heap of bank accounts and credit cards I just couldnt remember when so and so account was opened…and so Noodles said ‘non’ 🙁
- Talay says:
  
  16 Feb16 February 11:17
  
  You can obtain a credit file from another provider to give you the information you need to bypass the Noddle Q&A nonsense.