Credit Score Sore

megan2002

Hello , My credit rating has slumped to very poor from excellent as I haven't coped with anything in last few years and missed payments - how do I get the score back up and how long does it take? I have small loans with Vanquis and Capital One and want to get rid and have one with Santander. I don't work now due to illness and want rid of these as I have no other debt

Tixy

Improving your credit rating takes time. The score in itself is not the important part (in fact most would say its a waste of money to pay for it) but the information on your actual report is the part to look at.
Basically to improve your rating, make sure you make all payments on time each month, try to pay more than the minimum payment (for cards etc), try not to use an overdraft every month and reduce your debts overall. However if you are not working even with a clear credit report you would struggle to get any mainstream finance.

How long it takes depends on what is on your file at the moment and how recent any missed payments are.

megan2002

If I were to pay off the credit cards in full would this help my credit score as I would have no debts at all

qpop

A "credit score" is an imaginary number created by a credit reference agency as a product to sell you.

The "texture" of your credit report is far more important, but each lending institution will view your credit report differently.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_score#United_Kingdom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FICO_score#FICO_score_and_others

The second link is more interesting. The FICO scoring system is used by most lenders (in the UK as well as the USA) - and weights different aspects of your credit report differently.

In order of importance (roughly)
Default
Late payment
"Indebtedness" (credit utilised vs credit available)
everything else

Contrary to popular belief, not utilising credit does great things for credit scoring systems, it's a myth that it's damaging
Not HAVING any credit facilities is a negative (as no information is deemed bad), but not utilising them actually scores highly on the FICO system (and others)