Improve credit score without taking on debt

debtfreelondon

I was turned down for the Barclays offer - they cited a poor credit risk.

I've received my credit scoring info from Experian and Equifax which list very few searches, credit availability or history for me. I managed to get rid of all my debt and cancelled as many cards as I could to stop me spending apart from a Barclaycard which I repay in full every month and my main bank account with Lloyds.

Is there any way of improving credit rating without taking on additional credit?

Do Barclaycard not share their data with the credit agencies?

KatrinaC_2

debtfreelondon wrote:

I was turned down for the Barclays offer - they cited a poor credit risk.

I've received my credit scoring info from Experian and Equifax which list very few searches, credit availability or history for me. I managed to get rid of all my debt and cancelled as many cards as I could to stop me spending apart from a Barclaycard which I repay in full every month and my main bank account with Lloyds.

Is there any way of improving credit rating without taking on additional credit?

Do Barclaycard not share their data with the credit agencies?

If you've had a rubbish credit history in the past then lenders can take that as a reason to turn you down regardless of how able you are to repay your debts now. There are also a lot of other reasons you can get turned down, including how long you've lived at your address.

It looks like I've fallen through that gap having made a couple of late payments and moved house twice in a year. I'm now stuck with my Halifax card at nearly 30% interest ( :eek: )- all I can think of doing to fix it is to make sure that from here on in all my repayments all arrive on time and hope that sooner or later the good history starts to outweight the bad bits.

Kat

TAG

You say that you got rid of all your debt and got rid of your cards. Did you have any late of missed payments on any of these?

Some lenders don't register account activity with the CRA's. That is until you default. So you could have an exemplary record with a company for years which never shows and then as soon as you hit trouble bang they've got ya.

Unfortunatley, to get a good credit record you have to have credit to show that your a good payer. Catch 22 really. :rolleyes:

Tag

debtfreelondon

the funny thing is that i've had lots of credit in the past (7 credit cards at one stage) and i never missed at least the minimum payment on them. the old credit that shows up on the files show no late payments etc. i can't understand why barclaycard doesn't show on any unless they don't bother when you've had it for so many years.

it seems that you need to have credit to get credit or you're seen as being inactive and not worth the hassle of them providing you with something you're not going to use. even when you've had the credit they're quick to deny it to you once you clear your debts with them for any period.

TAG

Are all your old cards closed or showing as active in your file?

us,thecat&thedebt

i think i read something about a capital one card were u pay the money ie £200 and they give you a £200 limit so it helps people with a bad credit rating improve.. obvisly you pay (intrest) for the privilige....

although have heard some horrible things about c1

debtfreelondon

the cards are showing as closed now

TAG

How many searches and over what time span?

debtfreelondon

that's the strange thing cause there are no searches listed. it's as if most of my credit history has just disappeared.