credit rating. confused!!!

nb126_2

Hi

Im a tad confused!

My question is why do I seem to have a bad credit rating and my boyfriend doesnt?!

We have a joint mortgage together, I also have a mortgage on another property that I rent out, I have car finance which he doesnt. We have never missed any payments or had late payments on any of these. We both have multiple credit cards with debt on them and have both had late payments but he seems to have a good credit rating and can get a credit card whenever he wants and I get refused?!

I thought the more credit you had the better your credit rating?! How do I improve my credit rating?

very confused!!!

scottishblondie

Its not as simple as more is better. A reasonable level of well managed credit looks good, but a high credit to income ratio and the late payments look really quite bad. Carrying balances on CCs also looks bad, especially if the amount is close to your credit limit.

Having both the additional mortgage and the car finance means that you already have more commitments than your BF, plus the amount of available credit and the level of debt each of you is carrying is probably different.

To improve your rating only keep a reasonable amount of available credit, pay more than then minimum, and always make your payments on time.

BugsyBrowne

scottishblondie wrote: »

Its not as simple as more is better. A reasonable level of well managed credit looks good, but a high credit to income ratio and the late payments look really quite bad. Carrying balances on CCs also looks bad, especially if the amount is close to your credit limit.

Having both the additional mortgage and the car finance means that you already have more commitments than your BF, plus the amount of available credit and the level of debt each of you is carrying is probably different.

To improve your rating only keep a reasonable amount of available credit, pay more than then minimum, and always make your payments on time.

Carrying balances on cards look really bad you say lol

scottishblondie

star-fire wrote: »

Carrying balances on cards look really bad you say lol

The point I was trying to get across is that having CCs with debt on is not going to look good if you keep carrying a high balance on them all. Perhaps I should have worded that more clearly.

nb126_2

Thanks for the advice. I do have blance transfers all the time is the only way to manage the debt unfortunetly! :-(

scottishblondie

nb126 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. I do have blance transfers all the time is the only way to manage the debt unfortunetly! :-(

Do you close down the old cards once you've done the balance transfers?

nb126_2

No. i dont think ive EVER closed a credit card down!! does that make a difference?

lisyloo

Yes, if you have lots of AVAILABLE credit then that will potentially stop other lenders lending to you.

Get your credit reports from Experian and Equifax.
I recommend the £2 statutory versions (there are free trials available but if you forget to cancel you'll get stung).
If you have cards that you are no longer using then close them down (if they are open they will not be SETTLED).
You may have to wait 2-3 montns for the closures to be reported by the lenders to the credit reference agencies.
After 3 months check your report.
If your amount of available credit has gone down then your rating MAY have improved.
Note that this does no guaranteed sucees. You might still be maxxed out. We simply can't tell without figures.

nb126_2

Thanks for that. Didnt realise i could get a credit report so cheap, ive just applied for one. Also didnt realise that having credit cards just lying around not being used would affect my rating either ill get them cancelled.

lisyloo

Too much available credit makes you potentially risky (you could go out and spend it all tomorrow and get into trouble).
Being maxxed out e.g. using 90% of your credit also looks bad as well as it could be interpreted as you are not managing your debt.