How do the Credit and Affordability Scores differ?

Your Experian Credit Score does not take your income into consideration. It's mainly an indicator of how lenders perceive your credit worthiness. i.e how well you manage debt.

Your Affordability Score, however, assesses whether you're likely to be able to afford a product based on the information you have provided on your income and expenditure.

Our MSE Affordability Score mimics lenders' income assessments for credit cards, loans and (coming soon) mortgages. However, it is worth noting that each lender will have its own affordability criteria. So you may see weak affordability on your Credit club dashboard but high eligibility scores for individual products (or vice versa).

As always, please carefully consider whether you need further finance before applying for it as it could harm your creditworthiness if you take products out which you later cannot afford to repay.