Mortgage / Credit Advice

liamuk

Good Morning,
I hope everyone is well.

I'm just after a bit of advice regarding my credit score and eventually getting a mortgage.

I'm 22 and recently applied for a mortgage in April through a mortgage broker, this was rejected by both Nationwide and Santander because my credit score was too low. I was advised to get myself a Credit Card. I have done this and it has a limit of £250. I have set the card up as a direct debit so it will deduct this automatically every month, is this the best way to do it?

Before getting my Credit Card, my credit score was 850.
But now after getting my credit card and using it for a month my score has dropped to 640.

Over time will this start climbing back up?

I also have the following negatives on my credit score:

• You have recently opened 1 or more new credit accounts.
• You have revolving credit that has been open for less than 10 months.
• The value of your highest credit limit indicates a higher risk.
• You have no successfully settled non-mail order accounts.
• You have a significant number of recent searches on your credit report
• The age of your accounts indicates lenders are likely to view you as higher risk

Is there anyway that I can clear some of these up, or are most of them just a case of waiting for my credit card to be more than 10 months old?


Apologies if this is in the wrong section!


Thanks in advance for all your help!

kingstreet

Ignore the daft numbers you pay a CRA to provide. They aren't worth a lot. You now have three recent searches on file and a recently opened credit card.

In twelve months, all these items will have fallen off your credit file and you'll have several months' credit activity with your card giving you some positive date for a lender.

TBH there are lenders who don't credit score.

Being at the same address and same job for more than three years, having a decent deposit and not wanting 5x income are worth more to lenders than your "999" score which, by the way, can still see you declined a mortgage.

liamuk

kingstreet wrote: »

Ignore the daft numbers you pay a CRA to provide. They aren't worth a lot. You now have three recent searches on file and a recently opened credit card.

In twelve months, all these items will have fallen off your credit file and you'll have several months' credit activity with your card giving you some positive date for a lender.

TBH there are lenders who don't credit score.

Being at the same address and same job for more than three years, having a decent deposit and not wanting 5x income are worth more to lenders than your "999" score which, by the way, can still see you declined a mortgage.

Thank you for your advice, my situation was basically I've never had any type of credit so the lenders couldn't gauge whether I was good or bad with credit because I've never had any! Hence why I got myself a credit card.

I wasn't asking for a silly mortgage, but I've been at my job since December 2011 which may have contributed to the fact that I was rejected.

My plan is to keep using my credit card and paying it off at the end of each month whilst building up my savings further for another 12 months, does this sound like a good plan?