how long does a credit car take to improve credit score

stephen.rooke

im a student with no credit history, so im trying to improve my credit score (experian says its 821, 'i know every company scores differently so no need to comment')

ive been accepted for a student credit card, not going to use it much. if i pay off the full balace off each month, how long before car finance companys are likely to give me a better credit rating. are we talking a few months or 6months+, any help would be appreciated.

was also thinking of getting a pay monthly mobile phone, but i dont want to be adding to the number of searches as it will affect my chances of getting finance.

NickX

Generally speaking after 6 months of managing a Credit Card account well you should see an improvement in your Credit Rating. This means no late payments and no credit limit breaches.

In my opinion an additional search for a contract mobile phone shouldn't cause any detrimental effects.

xgingerx

Hi, If you have CCJ's or Defaults your credit rating would not really
improve much in the short term, although i had 1 default which was 5 years old and settled and mbna gave me a card with a 5k limit.

testpie

stephen.rooke wrote: »

im a student with no credit history, so im trying to improve my credit score (experian says its 821, 'i know every company scores differently so no need to comment')

ive been accepted for a student credit card, not going to use it much. if i pay off the full balace off each month, how long before car finance companys are likely to give me a better credit rating. are we talking a few months or 6months+, any help would be appreciated.

was also thinking of getting a pay monthly mobile phone, but i dont want to be adding to the number of searches as it will affect my chances of getting finance.

As the old saying goes: "If you don't ask, you don't get".

Case in point being myself. I've got a Barclaycard Student credit card which started off with a limit of £600 and 18.9% APR. Because I'm registered with Barclaycard.co.uk to manage my account online, one day I decided to use the "Send a secure e-mail" feature to ask if I was eligible for a credit limit increase or reduction in level of APR, and sure enough, a few days later received a response that my limit had been increased to £900 and APR dropped to 13.9%.

Even if they don't offer you a credit limit increase or APR level reduction, I can't see any harm in asking.