Credit rating

mickey30

over December I missed 2 credit card payments and a catalogue payment, I have the money now to pay them all off, but don't know if that's the best thing to do. will this have effected my credit rating? if so would I Be better making regular payments and for how long for? As I want to get a new kitchen on interest free credit, so I know I need to get my credit score back up. I can't believe how silly I was, Is there anything at all I can do. one of these cards was in my husbands name the other two where in my name, it is my husband that will be applying for the new kitchen loan. can anybody offer me any advice? thanks

rising_from_the_ashes

You really need to check your credit reports to see what's showing on them (bear in mind that these are unlikely to be updated for December as yet so it may be worth hanging on a couple of weeks).

How late are you with the payments? If a few days, then I'd pay the full amount ASAP. (ETA I assumed you meant min amount by "full" but not sure now?)

Unfortunately, if it's longer (ie a full month) then it's highly likely that your report will show these as "red" markers as late payments on your accounts - and this may affect your (and your hubby's if one of them is his) ability to get credit for a while.

On a slightly different note - why did you miss the payments?

To avoid it happening again, see if you can set up direct debits for the minimum amount to be collected each month - you can still pay more if you want to, but it ensures you can never miss a payment (check the first month's has gone through as it can sometimes take a few weeks for the dd to be set up and working)

mickey30

Thanks, I had been paying the minimum amounts monthly, I missed them and got another letter saying I needed to pay that months payment and extra to bring me up to date. Which i did. i missed them cos I needed money for Xmas. have sorted it now, and have got the money to pay them all off. so you think it would have effected our credit rating then?

rising_from_the_ashes

If you've missed the month's payment totally, then it's highly likely - only way to know for sure is to check your credit reports.

Please, please put aside some money each month this year to cover Christmas .... it's just not worth getting yourself into debt / missing payments etc over Christmas.

mickey30

Btw How long do you think it will take to get my credit card rating back up? X

camuk81

This depends on what the limit is and how much you owe but any impact takes a good 6 months to get over. However if its your first offence people may overlook it

mickey30

So does this mean then that even if I pay off my exsisting debit, which i am doing in the next couple of days, I won't be able to get my kitchen on 0% finance?? x

rising_from_the_ashes

Until you've checked your credit reports in a few weeks, you'll not know whether late payment markers have been applied ......

If they have, then these will affect your ability to get credit - this decreases over time, but as Camuk says, for the 1st 6 months it will almost certainly have an impact (especially in these times of lenders being much more strict with their lending than they were a few years ago).

camuk81

Ok, let's get a bit of an idea.

How much do you owe on the card
What's the limit
What is husbands average salary
What's the outgoing in the family accounts
Are you on electroal roll
Have you missed any other payments?
How old is your longest account?
How long have you lived at your current home?

This will give you a better idea of where you are. Credit is not a simple answer there is no magic wand and there are countless stories of people who think just because they have a 999 credit rating they should automatically get accepted.

Credit applications make up of so many factors it very hard to give a snap shot

bouncydog1

mickey30 wrote: »

i missed them cos I needed money for Xmas. QUOTE]

Before you even venture into thinking about getting further credit, you really ought to do a proper budget to make sure you can afford the payments on the kitchen as well as next Christmas.