Question about my credit report?

Miss_J

Just been going through my credit report to make one of my regular checks. Now I have noticed that there are 8 accounts on the report showing as "satisfied". I have a fair amount of debts to pay back (after 3 years studying) and have recently seen APR rates rise on a couple of my accounts which means I will now be taking longer to pay back these debts. My question is, will these 8 accounts that are satisfied be affecting my credit rating or is it more likely due to the amount of debt I owe? I know my credit rating is affected somehow because I recently applied for a loan with my own bank and with my mortgage provider and was turned down by both. Apart from these satisfied accounts my credit report is all in order. Can anyone help?

Tixy

The satisfied accounts should not have a negative effect (unless these accounts also show lots of late payments or a default from when they were active).

Lenders are more likely to be looking at the amount of money you owe in total, the percentage of your available credit that you are using (a high percentage is worse, i.e if you are nearly up to your limits on all cards thats bad news.) Or just basing it on affordability (your income and what you can afford to repay).

If you get turned down during a phone application its always worth asking why you were turned down. Virgin gave me quite detailed info (I was using too much of my available credit) and suggested I make sure my cc balances were all significantly less than the limit before I applied again)

Have you checked you credit report for all agencies? It may be something is showing up on one but not the others.

It is also worth remembering that due to the recession it is now much harder to get credit than a year or so ago so it may not be any specific item on your report but just down to the economic situation.

Miss_J

Many thanks Tixy, that has helped a lot. Keep trying to get my Creditexpert report but everytime I put my details into the system it says I already have an account and doesn't let me proceed further. If I do have an account with them it's from years ago and have no idea what my log on details are. I guess I should give them a call and order my £2 credit report. Again think it may be the credit limit thing, half of my card providers have recently reduced my credit limit to just above my balance, not because I'm in arrears because I pay all by DD, guess it may just be a waiting game to try again in a few months time and in the meantime just keep paying the 20.9% apr. Thanks again.