Just discovered my credit rating is poor

LittleLostOne

Hi, hope this the right place.

I have been carrying the same amount of debt, about £3.5K, since I left uni. in the last year I decided sign up for a couple of credit cards, balance transfer the debt and pay it off in the interest free periods. This was going well until a couple of months ago when several high expenses hit me all at once, and I am now in the position of having 5 credit cards, 2 with no balance, one which will be paid off this month, one to be paid of by December, and one with a balance of about £3200. I generally pay on time, other than one missed payment on one of the cards. I also had a loan, which is going to be paid off in less than a week. No missed payments on that.

I rent privately, and had planned to do so for many years to come. However, I need to move as I'm moving offices at work. Through looking at houses I've found a starter home development that runs a scheme similar to homebuy direct. I've spoken to the developer, who have then put me on to their financial adviser company (Mortgage Talk). He said I'd need a deposit of £3200ish, which is 5% of the 70% mortgage, the remaining 30% to come from the equity loan. I said I could get £5k. He went through my finances, paused at the number of credit cards and the fact that I only moved to my present address a year a go, but moved forward with helping me find a mortgage, suggested one, and then said the next stage was a credit check.

I've just seen my credit score on experian, and I have a poor rating. . It says this is partly due to the balances on my cards and the amount of credit I have available.

I'm preparing myself for the worst - am I right to assume I'll struggle to get a mortgage with the poor rating? Should I cancel the appointment to see the house on Friday? It seems harsh as I could easily wipe £5k from my available credit by canceling a couple of cards (but I'm too late to do that before the mortgage lender checks) and I've only missed one payment. I'm employed full time with a salary of £21500, continuous service of almost 3 years.

I could kick myself for not being more careful in the past.

olly300

Cancel the appointment.

Click on the link "Income Family" on the top and complete the budget planner

Go and look for property to rent in the area (preferably in a shared house to save money on bill and rent) and amend the budget planner to pay for your moving costs.

Go to the deb-free wannabe forum and talk to the people on there about how to get out of debt.

LittleLostOne

I thought that would be the answer. Thanks.

LittleLostOne

Does it make any difference if I'm towards the top end of poor? And the broker said he's tall the lender that the loan will be paid off as will the lowest credit card before the mortgage would start?