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

kalojac

Hi everyone

Looking for some help/advice. :money:

Myself and my husband got ourselves seriously into debt in 2003 when we had our 2nd baby and my hours had to change and the saga went on until January this year. We did various DMPs with CCCS etc during this time. We contacted a company in Novemebr 07 to see about remortgaging to pay off the debts. Which we did our debts totaled £36,000ish and we got everyone paid off in a full and final basis for around £25,000. Our mortgage was £32,000ish and is now £68,500ish (although we received £32,000 into our bank account the rest went on fees.

Anyway the point of my message is that I checked my credit file using credit expert online thingy and it obviously doesn't make great reading with CCJs, defaults etc. We are back on our feet, my husband now has a great job with great prospects, our children are now out of nappies/milk etc. I work 16 hours a week. We stay in a 2 bedroom house, and with 3 young boys we need to find somewhere bigger in the next 3-5 years.

My questions to you all taking into account the above is how do I go about cleaning up my credit rating so that when my "tie-in" period with my new mortgage company is over, we can start to think about selling up and buying a bigger property. Ideally I would like to put my house on the market in summer 2010, and I know that just now the mortgaging criteria is very high with companies not wanting to lend to anyone other than those with perfect credit history.

Thanks for reading this. Kalojac :beer:

me1000uk

Hi,

My credit is generally good, but I have been rejected for a couple of cards recently and I think it is because of my electoral roll status.

I have checked my scores with Experian and Equifax, and they are pretty high, but for some reason I am not on the 2008 electoral roll (even though I am).

I called up my council Westminster and they said they do not have a facility to inform the agencies, but have sent me letters of confirmation.

What is the best way to get these letters to the agencies? fax/Post etC? does anyone have any info??

I spoke to equifax on the phone, and they said there was a problem with westminster at present and I have to wait until it is resolved (despite my having the proof from Westminster).

Does anyone have any suggestions on my next step, as I am in need of a better credit card and am annoyed at getting rejected (and not being able to reapply for a while) for my desired cards.

Any comments are much appreciated.

edindie

Horseygirl82 wrote: »

Finally got a copy of m Experian Credit report which doesn't show anything particularly alarming. I have a recorder late payment to my credit card because stupid head me forgot to pay it. Won't happen again though as I have a direct debit set up.

However, what is alarming is that my credit score is 511, which is very poor and I don't know why. My report was generally ok.

How could this be?
How can I improve it? and
How long will it take to improve it?

Thanks

Most data on your credit report is kept only for 2 years (CCJs etc stay on for 6) so you will be scored only on your most recent data. The credit expert scorecard is very simple, so if you’re getting a low score on that then it means that you have some basic things wrong.

When you pay for your Credit Expert score, does it not include a blurb saying what is good and bad about your credit file?

melbury

Where on the Experian credit report do you find your actual credit score? I have just checked one I had done last year but cannot see a score - where is this piece of information? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

harrymetsally

melbury wrote: »

Where on the Experian credit report do you find your actual credit score? I have just checked one I had done last year but cannot see a score - where is this piece of information? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Hi

there are two tabs on experian, one says score and once says report. Your score is the one that tells you if your good, poor, exceleent etc. But you have to buy these for about £6 ... you have them forever but usually one thats three months or older is out of date.

hope this helps

Tantalus

I've just had a card turned down in favour of one of much higher interest. After I bought my Credit Report from Equifax I found out I had an alert due to a banking error in 2006, when they did not set up my DD correctly. This resulted in a late payment alert being inserted on my file (as you can see from the top part of the image).
The lower half of the image shows how this has reduced my overall credit score from satisfactory to 'warning'. I now have to wait for the bank to update my record, but it's too late for the application. I guess I'd best wait another 6 months or so before my next application so as not to have another search against my name.

(These screen captures are from my report - No personal details are included obviously )

melbury

Tantalus wrote: »

I've just had a card turned down in favour of one of much higher interest. After I bought my Credit Report from Equifax I found out I had an alert due to a banking error in 2006, when they did not set up my DD correctly. This resulted in a late payment alert being inserted on my file (as you can see from the top part of the image).
The lower half of the image shows how this has reduced my overall credit score from satisfactory to 'warning'. I now have to wait for the bank to update my record, but it's too late for the application. I guess I'd best wait another 6 months or so before my next application so as not to have another search against my name.

(These screen captures are from my report - No personal details are included obviously )

Thanks for all of the information but the report I have doesn't look like this at all. There are zeros under various institutions, but no mention of the items in the above box.

I got turned down for Capital One cashback card last year and have just applied for Barclaycard, which again looks like I will be turned down because when I clicked the submit button on my application I eventually got a message saying that they couldn't make a decision then but will be writing to me. I just don't understand why I am getting turned down, I have always cleared my cc balance at the end of every month and do not have any debts, so am very confused about it.

What actually constitutes a suitable candidate for one of their cards?

davidv

I am a recently discharged bankrupt. Will the Credit reference agencies be notified or will I have to do that myself?

marie1975_2

Hello

I wonder if anyone can help?

My mum has always had a good credit rating. She recently applied to move her credit card balance to a new low-interest rate card. She has been declined credit and advised this is due to adverse credit rating of my brother.

She's been told there is nothing she can do about this and she's very upset at now having a bad rating.

Does anyone know if it is possible for my mum to disassociate herself from my brother's credit rating?

Many thanks in advance.

edindie

Tantalus wrote: »

I guess I'd best wait another 6 months or so before my next application so as not to have another search against my name.

One search won’t make much of a difference to your credit profile, if you have 3 or 4 searches in the last 6 months you’ll look a little credit hungry, but less than that won’t make much of a difference.