Credit Rating Advise

hairo786

Hi All,

Me and my partner are looking to secure a new build house. This build will not be ready until july however i have recently checked my/her credit report and she scored Excellent while i scored a crappy "poor"

The last thing i want to do is be in risk of getting a mortgage declined. So I have 3/4 months to improve my score. Just to provide everyone with some background I have extracted some detials from my credit report below:

Number of credit accounts (including those settled) = 27


Amount of available credit (excluding mortgages) =£493

% of your total credit being used (excluding mortgages) = 93%
Number of missed or late repayments in the last year = 2

Number of times your credit report has been searched in the past 3 months = 0
Number of times your credit report has been searched in the past year = 4
Number of public information records on your report = 0
Notices of correction = 0
Time at current address = 10+ years

Your score of 696 is in the Poor category (for scores between 561 and 720). This is below average Experian credit score– only 32% of people have a score lower than Poor.

Just to give you all a bit more detail by the end of next month the number of search in a year would drop from 4 to 2. And the number of late payments should drop from 2 to 1.

Within the next three months what is the best thing i can do to increase my rating?

experian state the biggest thing that is dropping my score is:
"You have several credit agreements (excluding mortgages), and the outstanding balance is high"

I am planning to pay off 1 store card and pay off my gradute loan so in theory it will put an extra £210 back in to my wallet a month and close 2 accounts. However this means my % of total credit being used goes up.

or do i do the second otpion leave the gradute loan to finish up in october and put the cash in too a credit card and the store card. Close the store card and have a better % of credit in use? But lose the benefit of £190 a month extra.....


Am confused!!!! help!!!

Thanks in advance,

This is really stressing me out.

Thrugelmir

Other than the Graduate loan what outstanding credit and loan balances do you have between you?

hairo786

Hi,

Thanks for the reply here is a list of the accounts i have:

1. SANTANDER CURRENT ACCOUNT
2 Braclays Current Account
3. Car Loan - Current Bal: 6k - currently half way through this loan
4. T-Mobile
5. Graduate Loan - Current Bal: 1.3k - 7 payment left
6. Braclays Credit Card - Current Bal: 4.8k - Limit is: 5k
7. Argos Credit Card - Current Bal: 1.2k - Limit: 1.3k
8. Store Card - Current Bal: 320 - Limit: 400

Thanks again,

Edit: Just to add all she has is one credit card. We recently got married and I shouldered most of the finances....

TMoose

Calculating from the above, it looks like the OP has about 7K of outstanding debt. I would suggest that the 93% utilisation is what is driving the (somewhat meaningless) credit score.

Also,

hairo786

TMoose wrote: »

Calculating from the above, it looks like the OP has about 7K of outstanding debt. I would suggest that the 93% utilisation is what is driving the (somewhat meaningless) credit score.

Also,

Do you think then i should just leave the loan to naturally close in october and actually put some money to lower my utilisation?

I Agree the 93% does look bad... however having 8 accounts looks bad too?

Seems like my options:

a) put money in to lowering utilisation in both Store card (leave open) and Credit card.

Or

pay off and close off store card. (£320) And put some money into lowering utilisation in credit card?

Experian_company_representative

Reducing a few of the outstanding balances should improve the Experian Credit Score and probably any score a lender calculates.

James Jones