Summary
When do have an "adverse" credit rating? The situation is far from clear but this article sheds light.

Adverse Credit - When is a credit history described as adverse?

Asim Bayorl 17/02/05

The term Adverse Credit is used to describe borrowers who have a history of unsatisfactory credit transactions. The expressions "sub-prime" and "poor credit" describe exactly the same situation. This begs a number of questions; what credit information is used, where does the information come from and how poor must a credit history be for it to be labelled as "adverse"?