Your Credit Rating: How it works and How to improve it Discussion Area

danthemoneysavingman

Zebedee69 wrote: »

Hey,

Those credit worthey score things are a load of !!!!!!! No use to anyone. There is only one person who knows if your able to get a card. And thats the guy who made the card!

kinda true, but your comment is of no use whatsoever!
the score is at least a reasonable indicator of credit-worthiness, as it tends to underpin application scorecards at the majority, if not all, of credit-granting institutions.

danthemoneysavingman

robbiet27 wrote: »

danthemoneysavingman

cheers for the advice. i can wait, just thought i would try and save some £££ by getting a lower loan rate. i am disappointed by the credit score so hopefully in may when the ccj comes off my rating improves dramatically.

(2nd attempt at reply)
it is poss, you could try using (say) moneysupermarket.com to get an idea if there's a card out there for you (with a CCJ) - though guess you may've done this already.
good luck anyway

ramagel

helping_hubby wrote: »

No, I don't see how this is possible.

OK, fair enough then.

ramagel

helping_hubby wrote: »

No, I don't see how this is possible.

I asked elsewhere, and the reply from those who know about these things was that this can be possible.

I must say I didn't follow the answer terribly closely bearing in mind your view on the matter and the fact that I've never actually transferred a balance, but you might like to look in this thread http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=6757839#post6757839 and perhaps elswhere too.

Glad to have helped.

Moggles_2

Originally Posted by danthemoneysavingman
Apply for a card with hubby as secondary card holder (if your score is better). As he's named on the account, the debt could therefore be transferred.

There's no need to name anyone as a secondary cardholder. You can switch credit card balances from friends, family members or Dave down the pub.

Please bear in mind though, the person whose card the balance is shifted to, becomes soley liable for the debt. If you were to fall out, you couldn't ask the card company to charge the other person for any remaining balance.

From the lender's perspective, it's not a problem. Customer services may ask you for the name on the account, but this is purely an additional verification check. At the end of the day, the card company is after your business. They're not really interested in knowing who ran up the debt, as long as you, their customer, pay up on time each month!

helping_hubby

Thanks everyone. I had no clue that you could balance transfer to other peoples cards. It's nice to know this could be a last resort should we need it.

AmTheMan87

Hiya, I have found out that I had a default on my account from a mobile phone company and the last time they had updated my file was august 06.

Basically,when I contacted the company they told me that I was actually in credit and had been for almost a year and that there was no outstanding balance. I was told that everything was fine and I will recieve the credit back. I was also told that because of this, the default notice will be removed and not set at a "settled" status.

I recently recieved the credit that my account was in and an email confirming that all was fine and there was no balance due. I have again recently checked my credit file and it does now show settled...

Because my account has been in credit for almost a year and they have not updated the credit agencies of this... it has affected me in both credit and career ways. Is there anything that can be done about this as they have not informed the agencies that everything was actually fine???

Thanks.

danthemoneysavingman

AmTheMan87 wrote: »

...Because my account has been in credit for almost a year and they have not updated the credit agencies of this... it has affected me in both credit and career ways. Is there anything that can be done about this as they have not informed the agencies that everything was actually fine???

Thanks.

Your account being in credit is irrelevant. Their mistake is relevant. I'm not sure but if their error has affected you as you say then you should have a legal basis for complaint (some sort of litigation anyway) - if you can PROVE it is solely because of their error. or something like that. Ask a solicitor.
As for your credit file, if it now shows no problem thats fine. but again, if their error has ended up costing you more than you should've had to pay, they can be held accountable (probably). if there is still an error, you need to raise a notice of correction.

kenyonc

kenyonc wrote: »

Hi there

About 2 months ago I tried to sign up to a contract phone with 3, but failed the credit check. At the time I had just moved house, so the guy in the shop tried my old address, but I still failed the check. I assumed this was probably down to the fact I had moved and my registered addresses at banks etc were not all tied up. Anyway, I went into the 3 shop again yesterday to retry, and failed the credit check again.

Thing is I can't fathom why... I'm 24, employed full time, I had one credit card (Egg) which I use regularly but pay off in full each month, and 2 store cards I use once in a blue moon. Apart from my mortgage I have no loans/debts, and have never missed a mortgage/loan/bill payment in my life, and have never been more than a couple of quid into my agreed overdraft. I'm registered on the electoral roll. One thing I can think of is that I there were a number of fraudulent transactions on my card last month, which luckily I spotted in time and dealt with, but that shouldn't affect credit rating should it as I didn't miss any payments.

The only other thing I can think of is that we have had a few letters from bailiff/debt collector style companies addressed to the previous residents. Would this have a direct affect on my credit rating? I have been contacting the companies to let them know that the people no longer live here and have had them removed from the electoral roll, but it's slightly worrying,

I have tried to get my free online credit report with Experian, but when I tried to register for their free trial it told me I had already requested a report and to logon with my details.... thing is I didn't - I tried to about a year ago but Experian couldn't confirm my address as the time so I didn't bother going through with the application and cancelled it, so I will obviously be contacting them on monday to see what's going on.

Can anyone offer me some advice or insight on my situation at all? Obviously I'm in a bit of a pickle as even if there is an issue and I get it resolved, I've had 3/4 credit checks within the last 2 months so would probably fail it again if I tried to reapply.

Cheers

Chris

Bit of an update on this.

I checked with Experian and Equifax and got my credit history. My Experian one seems fine with no adverse notices. However my Equifax one had an unpaid bill listing from back in Jan 2004 with BT mobile which I thought had been removed (long story short someone used a mobile fraudulently contracted to me - had to go through Oftel to sort it out in the end but it dragged on for about 4 months before finally getting sorted. In the end BT agreed to remove all references from my credit file, which obviously they didn't!!!). I wrote to Equifax who checked with Bt and then removed. So now both my Experian and Equifax files are clear thought I'd wait another few months and try applying again.

Well after trying again I've just had another email telling me I've failed the credit check criteria! Now there is absolutely nothing on either of my files that could indicate I'm a bad score, and it's only a £12 a month contract I'm trying to get anyway!!!!!!!!!

Can anybody think of anything else it could possibly be? The only thing I can think of is possible electoral roll as it took the local council a while to update the roll (I moved into new house in Jun but am only on the electoral roll there since Sept)... are they that picky with electoral roll dates????

I'm stumped and getting a little p*ssed off. Have tried contacting 3 directly but they can't give me any info as it's an automated process apparently!

Help!!!

Zebedee69

Kenyonc,

Just leave yourself on Electoral role for another few months. Have you got any current credit accounts open and upto date? In an ideal world you should have between 2 and 5 accounts open:

Current Account with an overdraft limit = 1 Account
Credit Card = 1 Account - For BT's and paying off stuff
Another Credit Card = 1 Account - For Purchases
Store Card = 1 Account - For obtaining sales offers and money off, NEVER FOR BORROWING!
Mobile Phone = 1 Account

If have nothing open at moment they have nothing to score so you would be better off obtaining a storecard while you waiting for that 6 months. That way you will have 6 months on Electoral role and 3 months payments to card..........