Bad Credit Score - help improving plz!

Daisysmummy

Hello, Hope im in the right place. Im after some advice on my husbands poor credit score. To cut a long story short, my husband failed to pay off small credit cards amounts / pay day loans. This was a few years back and all debts have now been paid off. His credit score is rubbish, which we only found out after we tried to apply for a mortgage last year (I already have one).

What I want to know is, we are doing everything we can to improve his score (his record is very colouful compaired to mine!), hes on the votors, credit file has been updated with correct info etc, but hes been turned down for a "bad credit credit card" (vanquis etc) which they keep saying will help to start improving his score. (but they wont give him one) We would like to apply for a new mortgage in 2/3 years but will his score improve over these years? I dont want to wait and do nothing in the next few years only to be in the same situation again.

We saw an IFA who just said we need to keep any eye on it, didnt really offer any advice. Ive searched every website on how to improve the score, but is it a case of "it just takes time".

Please can anyone offer any useful info??

Thank you

matttye

What does he have on his credit report in terms of defaults, CCJ's, late payments, etc.? The credit score is meaningless, it's the information held that's important.

Information about accounts only stays on the credit report for six years, so any adverse information will drop off six years from when it was added, so if your husband has defaults 'a few years back' they may nearly be dropping off by now - or may do before you need to apply for a mortgage.

If you could give us some idea of what's actually in his reports, we could advise further.

Daisysmummy

late payments. (no CCJS etc) where the debt was then "sold" to these debt companies who threaten baliffs etc. so were talking about 6 plus missed payments on about 3 different loans - but all are paid off now... guess its just a case of waiting for them to drop off...!

matttye

Daisysmummy wrote: »

late payments. (no CCJS etc) where the debt was then "sold" to these debt companies who threaten baliffs etc. so were talking about 6 plus missed payments on about 3 different loans - but all are paid off now... guess its just a case of waiting for them to drop off...!

No defaults? If so, it doesn't sound like his credit history is that bad.

If he's recently applied for a credit card or two it might be best to wait a while, but CapitalOne seem less strict than the other bad credit card companies. I recently got one of these with multiple defaults in my history:

http://www.capitalone.co.uk/creditcards/classic-mastercard-credit-card.jsf?linktype=cta:link:apply-card-image-01&event=event49

I will be repaying in full every month as I'm trying to fix a bad history myself.

Failing that, he could get one of these:

http://www.mycashplus.co.uk/offers/cashplus/creditbuilder/?pc=GAW511&apskw=creditbuilder&apsad=6901792349&apsds=S&apspl=&apsmt=e&gclid=CIX2y6bHn7cCFc5a3god8TkAMQ

You can't be rejected for it as there's no credit check. It's a prepaid credit card and you pay a small fee each month so that it reports to your credit files. This should be a last resort because really you're paying for nothing.

Phone contracts might be another option to consider. Even if you buy a one month rolling contract these are reported by most companies.

Daisysmummy

this is all new to me, so maybe a late payment is classed a default?? if he hadnt paid his monthly payments for a while then i guess thats a default?

We tried capital one / vanquis and aqua!!

thanks u for ur help thou, guess we just have to wait a while!

matttye

Daisysmummy wrote: »

this is all new to me, so maybe a late payment is classed a default?? if he hadnt paid his monthly payments for a while then i guess thats a default?

We tried capital one / vanquis and aqua!!

thanks u for ur help thou, guess we just have to wait a while!

Which credit report company did he use to check his files? Experian shows defaults as an "8", Equifax shows them as a red "D" and Noddle shows them as a red "D" as well.

Late payments show up as a number (usually 1 through 6) indicating how many months late the payment is.

He should check his files with all three to get a full picture.

A default is usually only applied if he has failed to pay for a number of months, then the creditor will send a 'default notice,' which is basically a letter informing you a default will be applied and saying what could happen next; court etc. It usually also gives a date that he could pay by to stop the action from happening. If he then fails to pay within the time frame given, only then will a default be applied.

If the above hasn't happened he may be able to contest the defaults. Some Payday loan companies are known for doing things not by the books...

Daisysmummy

we used experian and he had a couple of red dots with 6 - 8 in them. we never received letters re court just that the debt had been sold to debt companies and we ended up paying them. It doesnt surprise me payday people dont do things correctly!

I will have a look at noddle and equifax as well to see what they say!

datlex

I'd recommend you watch Martin's money program from last night- you should be able to see it on itv player. It covered improving your credit score.

lynz68

You also mentioned payday loans even if these were paid on time the fact he had one at all can have a negative effect on a record particularly when applying for a mortgage.

matttye

lynz68 wrote: »

You also mentioned payday loans even if these were paid on time the fact he had one at all can have a negative effect on a record particularly when applying for a mortgage.

Lenders can't see who you've borrowed from, only how much you borrowed and how the account was ran, so how would they know you'd had a payday loan? Unless it actually asks if you've ever had one on the application form.

lynz68

Of course they no who you have borrowed from. Experian even record your payday loans separately from others. It has been widely reported recently how having a payday loan can have an effect on getting a mortgage not all lenders will refuse but some will. Just search on google re affects of payday loans on mortgage applications plenty of info there.