Credit Score Basics > How to find out the average credit score in your area

How to find out the average credit score in your area

Wollit Team2 minute read · Updated 1st July 2024

Understanding your credit score can be useful for making informed financial decisions and understanding how lenders might see you. In the UK, credit scores vary quite a bit depending on the area.

While technically your address doesn’t affect your credit score, knowing the average credit score in your area could help you better understand how lenders could potentially perceive you, and how you rank among your peers.

Here are the main ways to figure out the average credit score in your area.

Experian's Credit Score Map

Experian has an online map that lets you type in your postcode and see the average credit score in your area. They update this once a year, and it’s a very useful resource if you want to understand how your credit score compares to others in your region.

According to Experian, the highest average credit scores are in the City of London (no surprise there?), while the lowest are in Kingston-upon-Hull, Blaenau Gwent, and Blackpool.

Other websites

Other websites also occasionally run surveys or analyse data regarding credit score by town, region, or even postcode. Here are the websites that run these surveys:

ClearScore.
CreditSpring.
Equifax.
MoneySuperMarket.

However, unlike Experian, they don’t do this on a regular basis. Still, it doesn’t hurt to check them out.

How could knowing the average credit score in my area help me?

Knowing the average credit score in your area can help you in several ways:

It can give you a better idea of your financial health and how lenders might view your creditworthiness. While lenders are not allowed to discriminate based on your address, it probably does play a role in their lending decisions. For example, if you know that the average credit score in your area is lower than the national average, you might need to be more cautious when applying for loans or credit cards and prepare a bit more.
It can also give you an idea of how risky it is to open a joint account with someone based on where they’re from.
And hopefully it can also motivate you, especially if your credit score is lower than others in your area.

However, don’t forget that at the end of the day, your individual credit score is what matters. The good news is that now there are many apps that can help you build and improve credit.

One such app is Wollit. Wollit works by reporting a fixed-fee monthly subscription as a loan repayment to all credit reference agencies. This helps you build a history of timely debt repayments, which is the main factor that matters for your credit score – not your address.

Playing around with Experian’s credit score map might be fun and even interesting, but when it comes to improving your credit score, you might get more mileage from a credit-building app like Wollit.