TransUnion Changes Score Range But Credit File Stays the Same
A Bond
Breaks and a Number Appears
Britain’s credit reporting system is about to run a quiet demonstration of the same principle: the structure stays exactly as it was, and something latent becomes legible.
TransUnion, one of Britain’s three main credit reference agencies, began in late September 2026 swapping a score that topped out at 710 for one that rates consumers out of 999. [1] The rollout is not scheduled to finish until June 2027. Nothing in the underlying record has changed to produce that discrepancy. Only the scale has.
The new range arrives with colour-coded bands, running from “excellent” at the top to “very low” at the bottom, following the traffic-light logic the industry prefers because it reads faster than a number. TransUnion’s own projection for the transition is that 58% of people stay in the band they were already in, 36% are promoted to a higher bracket, and 6% slip down a rung. [1] A promotion or a demotion here is not a judgement about a person. It is a recalibration of the ruler.
The vocabulary moved as well. The bottom two bands, previously “poor” and “very poor”, are now “low” and “very low”. Madhu Kejriwal at TransUnion describes the new score as “clearer, more transparent, informative and better aligned with how lenders view consumers today”. [1] The company frames the overhaul as more than a new number range: it combines how a consumer uses credit over time with a moment-in-time view, and it draws on more data, including how account balances have changed and how credit cards are actually used.
The File Is the Machine That Counts
The file matters more than the band. TransUnion says the information shared with organisations about an individual’s credit history remains unchanged, and that the presence of different scores during the transition will not influence lenders’ decisions on credit applications. The number on the screen is a presentation layer. The file is the machine, and the machine is untouched.
That distinction matters because Britain has no single “universal credit score” used by lenders or by the agencies themselves. Each agency runs its own model over broadly similar data — chiefly a history of paying bills on time — and each publishes its own range. Equifax scores people from 0 to 1,000. [2] Experian scores them from 0 to 1,250. [3] A number that looks alarming on one platform would look unremarkable on another, and none of them is necessarily the figure a lender consults.
Experian rejigged its system in 2025, lifting the top of its range from 999 to 1,250 and factoring in items such as rental payments for the first time. [3] Experian says the new system better reflects the everyday financial behaviours that matter, such as paying rent or reducing overdraft use, and gives consumers a more personalised view of their finances, plus more practical ways to improve. It also retired the “poor” and “very poor” labels and the colour red; its bands now read “excellent”, “very good”, “good”, “fair” and “low”.
The aftermath of that change is the closest thing to a natural experiment the sector has produced. After it, Experian says 42% of people saw their score band improve and a similar number recorded a drop, while 14% registered no change. [3]. Equifax, meanwhile, shifted from a 0-700 range to 0-1,000 in 2021. [2]
Tom Eyre, the chief executive of the credit-building platform Loqbox, puts the point plainly: if a new model moves someone into a lower band, “it doesn’t mean they have become less creditworthy overnight”. [4] Their behaviour and their history are unchanged. What has changed is how the credit rating agency calculates or presents the score.
What Feeds the Number
If the number is a reading rather than a verdict, the useful question becomes what feeds it. Eyre argues it is far more important to understand what is in a consumer’s report and what shapes it than to fixate on a specific band or number, since that information is what credit providers actually examine, alongside their own criteria, when they decide.
Start with accuracy, and start in three places at once. Eyre notes that no single agency gives the whole picture: the three do not all hold exactly the same information about a person, because lenders and other providers may report to one, two or all three — and some lenders lean on a particular agency when assessing applications. Every credit reference agency is legally required to supply a statutory credit report at no charge, and services such as ClearScore, Credit Karma and the Experian app show a score, often with basic report insights, for free, though some additional features may sit behind a payment.
Experian offers guidance on improving a score: keeping credit card use to around 30% of the limit, registering on the electoral roll so lenders can verify identity, avoiding new credit applications unless they are needed, and keeping up to date with minimum payments. Craig Tebbutt at Equifax stresses making full repayments on time, because missed payments stay on a credit report, and repaying what is owed in full and on time shows lenders that a borrower can manage their finances. He adds that if a consumer already holds a lot of available credit — several credit cards, a large overdraft — lenders may take that into account, so closing unused accounts can help.
Not every movement deserves alarm. Small shifts are not unusual, and they can be caused by something as ordinary as using a bit more of a credit card limit. A slight dip is unlikely to affect a borrower’s ability to obtain credit. A “low” or “very low” score does not block access to credit either, though it may make credit harder to obtain, and the options that remain may carry a higher interest rate. John Webb at Experian says small changes are generally no cause for concern, because a score can move regularly as the information on the report is updated.
A steep drop is different, and it is a red flag worth investigating. The cause could be straightforward — the closure of an account after paying off a longstanding credit card — or something more serious, such as a missed payment or identity fraud. Watching the direction of travel, rather than the daily figure, is the discipline; many high street banks now build score-checking into their apps, which makes that direction easier to track.
The reading changes, but the record underneath stays exactly what it always was — and that record, not the number on the screen, is what lenders actually weigh.
Sources
1. TransUnion
2. Equifax
3. Experian
4. Loqbox
5. ClearScore
6. Credit Karma