Improving credit rating

The_Boss

Now I posted about my poor credit rating about a month ago - saying that my score usually indicates that I have had repayment problems in the past when I have never missed a payment.

Anyway, since then I've reduced my total credit limit by £4000 by asking for reductions. I have about £9200 in credit available to me on cards and about £5.5k in a car loan (monthly direct debit). I also closed a Capital One card that I had reduced from £7k to £1k.

I currently use a MBNA bmi card and Morgan Stanley for work purposes (in my name as I am kind of like freelance) and have a Halifax and Lloyds TSB card for 0% on balance transfers. Previous to all my cancellations and changes, I had over £22k available on credit cards. I owe about £4.2k of my own money, and regularly spend up to and over £1k on work expenses which are paid off in full monthly.

What can I do in terms of improving my rating? I've read the article on the site many times and done all I can, but its still poor. This year I have closed 5 card accounts - Virgin (applied in 2002), Egg (applied september 2001), NatWest (october 1997) and Barclaycard (applied December 04) as well as the Capital One above.

In the past year or so, I have applied for and been accepted for MBNA bmi card (July 2004), Lloyds TSB (december 2004), Barclaycard (december 2004), Marks and Spencer (june 2005 - rejected) and Halifax (june 2005). I also had to apply for an Abbey National account last november and an Alliance and Leicester in July this year (for work mystery shopping purposes) and had 3 searches done by mortgage companies between July and September.

So is it just a case of waiting for a while for these to settle down? I understand that having the searches done in succession is bad, but even when cancelling old cards? My score is about 705 and 'poor' despite never missing a payment.

canny_yorkshireman_2

well boss from what you say you would think that your credit should be top notch but i think there is more sinister things going on with banks and credit companies.
I have an exemplery credit history but have found recently to my horror that i was refused a credit card because i was a bad risk but think because i have used the system it is now turning on us and cherry picking the market to maximise profit. would like some feedback on this as it now seems to be happening more and more.I suspect that you are now being subjected to this critera.comments please

ioscorpio

Martin has already said this in articles on here that some credit card companies will only issue you witha card if they are going to make money out of you and don't want customers who pay in full every month.

ashmit

Have you tried appealing with any of these? I've had some success in the past with that.

Not sure what else to suggest though.

The_Boss

Ok, just adding to this instead of starting a new thread.

Basically, I need to know what route to take here in terms of paying stuff off to improve my credit rating. These are my debts.

£7.5k on credit cards - £2000 on Morgan Stanley, £1300 on MBNA, £1600 on Halifax and £2500 on Lloyds TSB card. I have just applied for a Natwest balance transfer card too

£4.9k on a car loan - 0% finance, paying £169/month until July 2008.

I have £2500 expenses payment due (mainly the reason for high credit bills), but someone recently said to me I'd be best paying off the car loan asap. The logic behind this was that I am on the hook for £169 a month guaranteed for that regardless, whereas some companies may look at my credit report and see that I only have to pay about £110 in minimum payments on credit cards - therefore, ridding myself of the bigger monthly payment first will improve my score quicker.

Of course, the problem with that is the loan is interest free, but three of my credit cards will incur interest. Thoughts on this please.

Joe_Bloggs

@The Boss
Paying off a 0% loan early is a mistake in my view. You do not mention the
rates you are being charged on your cards. Concentrate paying off the highest rate credit card first.
If you are having to use your own cards for business expenses in the long run then use a purchase rebate card. Amex platinum offer 0.5% back for upto £3000 then 1% and upto 2% back for spending over £7501. Egg Money is a master card that gives a flat 1% back (2% until Dec 10).
My application for the Natwest card was turned down. I had previously closed down three cards with approx £16K of credit limit. There was nothing bad on my credit reports. I only had two credit searches caused by a re-mortgage that saved £100 a month.
I tried the Experian Free trial and discovered nothing more that typographical errors that tended to pad out the report.
J_B.
Major Edit.
I was talking garbage regarding the Natwest card (AKA RBS, Mint etc) I meant Lloyds TSB 0% offer.