Credit Rating: How it works and How to improve it discussion area

sfax

kewns wrote: »

Hello,
My question is how long would it take to be able to get a mainstream credit card? All I won’t is to get rid of these stupid high interest ones, capita one & Vanquis I mean 40% Apr. is a little high!!
So if anyone can look over this and see if they have a rough idea, thank you
I have a credit score of 361 due to Equifax
Credit Agreements
Good
You have 5 active accounts and 1 settled accounts on file at your current address. Credit grantors prefer that you have at least one or two accounts as part of your credit profile. Active accounts are preferred to settled accounts.

Excellent
Your oldest account is 6 year(s) 1 month(s) old. Credit grantors prefer to see accounts opened at least 36 months.

Fair
Your payment history shows that you have previously been 2 months in arrears. While you haven't been significantly overdue in making payments, some credit grantors may not grant you credit if you have other risk signals present on your credit report.
Excellent
All payments on your accounts are up to date.
Excellent
Credit reference agencies are receiving periodic updates from your credit grantor(s) that reflect you have made payments on time in the past.
Excellent
You have no defaults.
Electoral Roll
Fair
You are presently shown as registered on the electoral roll but your registration at your current address is for two years or less. Credit grantors generally prefer at least 3 or 4 years of confirmed residency as this indicates stability. Please review the section of your credit report entitled Electoral Roll .
Searches
Fair
You have had 3 search(es) for credit in the last six months. Credit grantors view more than one or two searches within six months unfavourably. Please review the section of your credit report entitled Previous Searches . For more information about credit searches and what you can do about them, click here .
Searches at your current address: 3

Court Information
Excellent
You have no information in your credit report that indicates a Court Judgment or other public record information such as a bankruptcy in your name. Credit grantors view this favourably.

Keep using and paying the cards you already have - always on time (preferably with DD). Pay more than the min amount each month even if only £1 more. Don't make more than 2 applications in any 6 month period. Try again in 6 months time.

sandspider2000

Just tried the free credit report from Noddle. Looks quite good, if you ignore all the offers and junk they try and sell you. (Make sure you clear the checkboxes for sending you offers / promotions, and allowing 3rd parties to send you offers / promotions...) Will have to wait and see if they spam me now.

BugsyBrowne

sandspider2000 wrote: »

Just tried the free credit report from Noddle. Looks quite good, if you ignore all the offers and junk they try and sell you. (Make sure you clear the checkboxes for sending you offers / promotions, and allowing 3rd parties to send you offers / promotions...) Will have to wait and see if they spam me now.

Yes noddle is fantastic everyone getting exited about a credit report that no lender uses.

Irs free for a reason!

droiderm

On the contrary, knowing what CallCredit hold about you is valuable.
I think you meant the score aspect.

debrag

BugsyBrowne wrote: »

Yes noddle is fantastic everyone getting exited about a credit report that no lender uses.

Irs free for a reason!

Funny how ALL my acounts are on there.

BugsyBrowne

debrag wrote: »

Funny how ALL my acounts are on there.

It doesn't matter if all your accounts are on Noddle or not its if they are on Experian or Equifax is what matters.

Lenders don't give a monkeys if all your info is correct on noddle as they wouldn't see it.

At the end of the day I am not Experian's or Equifax's greatest fan but I know if there was a problem with my credit report I certainly wouldn't log in to the likes of noddle for reassurance!!

sfax

If you understand noddle's limitations, it's a useful free tool, particularly if you just want to look at your credit agreements. It actually does a better job of consolidating them than the other two. Also useful if you have an issue with data on one of the other two and need something to compare with.

My advice is get a free Noddle report and a £2 statutory report from the other two at least once a year and just before applying for credit

droiderm

In my experience subtly different information can exist on all three
and sometimes noddle has information the others don't
You need to look at all 3 and consider what your lender is going to look at
you might pick a lender which only looks at the better ones.

droiderm

Some lenders for mortgages for example only look at call credit.

coolio_2

What is needed for a credit check? Lets say you have never lived in the country, have no NI, never had any credit facilities but do have a current account, is that sufficient?