Advice on bad crdit report?

skint-78

Hi is anyone able to advise me on things to do with my rubbish credit report?
I am pretty much afloat at present, and repaying any debts as agreed, and working my way slowly out of the red and into the black.
Unfortunately in the past I wasn't quite this good with my finances, and so I am paying for it now.
I have requested my credit report from Experian and Equifax.
So far I have one report back which states that I had a credit card DEFAULT in early 2003, and another bad looking mortgage payment where I was consistently getting scores of 6666666655 over the period of the loan.

I don't really understand the implications of this apart from the explanation booklet saying that it stays on the report for 6 years from default/settlement.

Any tips/advice greatfully received.
Thanks.

h4nym

Hi Skint

The 6666666655 looks bad, but it may not be... what it means is that you were 6 months behind with your payments for 8 months, then 5 months behind for 2 months. So - you got yourself 6 months in trouble, and then you stabilised the position (a good thing) and then you improved the position. I take it you're paying off the mortgage arrears by 'overpaying' a little each month.

What is also means is that you're still 5 months behind with your mortgage - which is not good news! Are you behind with others too or are the reading zeros? If they're reading zeros, then focus as hard as you can on getting those 5's down to zeros too. And then wait until you get a whole row of zeros there too.

A default 3 years ago is not the end of the world. Current arrears are not good, though. What worries me a little is that you're looking at your credit report at all - you're not planning on doing anything silly now are you? Like borrowing again?

H

Broken_hearted

I try to view OH's bad credit rating as a good thing. We can't get credit, so no more debt.

YorkshireBoy

h4nym wrote:

The 6666666655 looks bad, but it may not be... what it means is that you were 6 months behind with your payments for 8 months, then 5 months behind for 2 months. So - you got yourself 6 months in trouble, and then you stabilised the position (a good thing) and then you improved the position. I take it you're paying off the mortgage arrears by 'overpaying' a little each month.

What is also means is that you're still 5 months behind with your mortgage - which is not good news!

You're reading the numbers incorrectly. The most recent information is given first - ie the OP is currently 6 months or more late with their payments.

Think about it...how can you go from being 6 months late one month and then suddenly become 5 months late the next?

wannabedebtfreebeth

YorkshireBoy wrote:

Think about it...how can you go from being 6 months in arrears one month and then suddenly become 5 months in arrears the next?

By making a double month's payment??

YorkshireBoy

wannabedebtfreebeth wrote:

By making a double month's payment??

I'm not sure it works like that - but the fact remains that the most recent monthly status code is given first.

skint-78

h4nym,
Thanks for the reply. I am reassured about the default, which I don't know if I mentioned, I did settle in full.
As for the mortgage, it is pretty shocking isn't it, but I was separated from ex (joint owner) who refused me access to the house, and also refused to pay mortgage! Thankfully after a long struggle and lots of hard fighting, I managed to sell the house and settle the mortgage in full aswell.
This leaves me with only one outstanding debt which is a balance of £3800 on a terribly high (about 13.9%) car loan which I have had 3 late payments on in almost 3 years, and for the past at least 2 years have paid on time in full.
The reason I was looking at my credit report was to suss it out and check what on earth they thought of me (!!), and see if I will ever be able to borrow again!
And I definitely don't want to borrow anything now, but do wonder if once I'm debt free, I might be able to save a deposit and get another mortgage.
In fact it worries me alot whether I will ever be able to borrow again for another mortgage, and if I really should be trying to improve my credit rating (or if my repayments on car loan should be evidence enough!).
Thanks so much for your advice. I really am clueless.