How to boost credit score to get mortgage

chlozzi

Hi all,

My husband and I are just about to re-mortgage and we've both been totally anal about our finances for years now, paying off all our credit cards, paying everything bang on time and really trying to make sure we have good credit scores so we can avoid issues we had years ago every time we tried to remortgage!

So, a couple of weeks ago my credit score was 'excellent' according to Experian and was about 966 I think. I was well chuffed as we want to kick off a mortgage application in the next couple of weeks (to start on 26th May). I checked it again today and annoyingly it has gone down to 'good' and now is only 919.

I'm really miffed and annoyed with myself. Last time I looked it said I had lots of lines of credit (as I used to have several credit cards, which I've been diligently paying off) which was a risk factor. Having paid the last card off in Feb, I closed all the credit card accounts and now only have about £800 of available credit (instead of about £15,000). So apparently now my credit report says not having enough credit is a risk factor :mad:

I've had no recent searches in the last 6 months. Do I get another credit card with a high balance (or extend the balance of the one card I still have open) in the hope that it will boost my score. Or is a 'good' but not 'excellent' score going to be enough to not be turned down for a mortgage. My smug husband has an 'excellent' score.

Sorry for the long-winded message but if anyone could help me I'd be very grateful. I don't want to increase my credit card limit willynilly as that will be one credit search, leaving me only one more search for a mortgage before my score starts going down even more.

Thanks

Thrugelmir

Not you've done the hard work of clearing your debts. Focus on building your savings. Forget about CRA scores. What matters is how a lender scores you.

ACG

Forget the score experien or equifax or any credit company give you - its THEIR score not a lenders score.

If you have no adverse credit then forget it, you should be fine.

Honestly, when i say its a load of rubbish i mean it. Ive seen people with 999 who have been declined and people with average scores get accepted.

You may aswell go and pull a number out of a hat.

holly_hobby

As stated the credit "scores" you see on your CRA record, is under a completely different assessment matrix than a mortgage lender will use.

If you are on the voters roll, have pristine credit history, not heavily indebted nor have access to copious amounts of rolling credit (ie credit/store cards), you should be ok (notwithstanding standard criteria such as employment and income).

Hope this helps

Holly

ValHaller

chlozzi wrote: »

.... I'm really miffed and annoyed with myself. Last time I looked it said I had lots of lines of credit (as I used to have several credit cards, which I've been diligently paying off) which was a risk factor. Having paid the last card off in Feb, I closed all the credit card accounts and now only have about £800 of available credit (instead of about £15,000). So apparently now my credit report says not having enough credit is a risk factor :mad:

Playing around with your credit to manipulate your credit score can have unintended consequences

chlozzi wrote: »

.... I've had no recent searches in the last 6 months. Do I get another credit card with a high balance (or extend the balance of the one card I still have open) in the hope that it will boost my score. Or is a 'good' but not 'excellent' score going to be enough to not be turned down for a mortgage. My smug husband has an 'excellent' score.

Playing around with your credit to manipulate your credit score can have unintended consequences

Typhoon2000

Increasing your deposit and reducing the amount you want to borrow is the only meaningful thing you can do to improve your credit score with the mortgage company if you are already on the electoral roll and paid off your existing debts.