With our next Headlinemoney Masterclass approaching, we hear from speaker John Webb, Senior Consumer Affairs Manager at Experian, on the misunderstandings and misconceptions surrounding credit scores, the importance of knowledge before applying for credit and supporting financially vulnerable people across the UK.

Can you give a quick overview of what your Masterclass session will cover? 

We’ll dive in to credit reports and score, and why they’re so important. 

We’ll be covering topics such as: 

• What’s on your credit report (and what’s not) 
• What your credit score really means 
• What impacts your credit score 
• How to apply for credit 
• Getting support and checking your credit score 

What are the challenges surrounding your topic journalists should help their readers understand? How will you be discussing this at the Masterclass?

Credit scores can often be misunderstood — despite being a central pillar to getting access to credit, at good rates. There’s also plenty of myths about credit scores, which can cause confusion. We’ll look at these in the Masterclass, as well as talking about some of the positive and negative impacts to credit scores. 

We’ll make credit scores transparent and give everyone an understanding of how to get, and maintain, a healthy credit score.

Any general tips for money writers covering your sector?

Don’t overcomplicate credit scores. It’s based on your borrowing history, which means there’s some general rules to getting a great score: 

• Make your payments on time 
• Keep overall debt as low as possible 
• Build some credit history 
• Keep credit card balances low (avoid getting close to the limit) 
• Register on the electoral roll if you can 

Importantly, you can get your Experian credit report and score for free. We also have a customer service teams based in Nottingham, which can answer all your questions.

What would you like to change about how journalists cover your area?

Journalists do a great job covering credit scores. However, there remains some misunderstanding and misconceptions about how they work. 

it’s important to shine a light on this topic so people can understand how they can access credit, and get the best rates and limits. What’s equally important is making sure people know about it before they apply. This way, they have a chance to improve their score and perhaps save money on future credit. 

It’s also important to understand the role of a credit reference agency like Experian. We don’t make lending decision, which are always made by the company. However, we will support people, for free, to access and improve their score, query information or help victims of ID fraud.

Tell us about the big stories in your sector in the past few months. Could these be rolling stories?

Experian has launched a free service called ‘Boost’. This now gives you the chance, suing open banking, to get a credit score boost for making regular payments to: 

• Council tax 
• Savings 
• Digital subscriptions (e.g. Netflix, Amazon Prime, Spotify) 

This can be extremely useful when you’re searching for credit, particularly if you have a low score or little information on your report already. 

Through our Consumer Affairs public education programme, we’ve led initiatives supporting the NHS, free debt advice sector and victims of financial abuse. Continuing our work to support financially vulnerable people across the UK.

Finally, why is it important for journalists to have access to initiatives such as Headlinemoney Masterclasses?

Industry insight is vital. We always get great feedback from these sessions and I think the selling point for journalists regarding these Masterclass sessions is the ready-made carousel of industry experts keen to share their knowledge and ideas. 

The Headlinemoney Masterclass will be held on Thursday 1 May 2025 where experts from three other financial services companies will give succinct overviews of their sectors for financial journalists. Find out more and book a place.