Questions about my credit score

sfax

matttye wrote: »

Try it and see.

I'm so confident that it won't work that I'm stubbornly not going to waste my time filling in the form ;-). I also already get unlimited Experian credit reports and alerts as part of my bank account

Experian gets muppets paying £15/month to them for made up numbers; they wouldn't leave a gaping hole like that in their free trial check

matttye

sfax wrote: »

I'm so confident that it won't work that I'm stubbornly not going to waste my time filling in the form ;-). I also already get unlimited Experian credit reports and alerts as part of my bank account

Experian gets muppets paying £15/month to them for made up numbers; they wouldn't leave a gaping hole like that in their free trial check

Your stubbornness is silly when you're talking to someone who has had two trials.

When signing up for a free trial they have three options to the question 'Have you had a free trial before?' : 'Yes,' 'No' and 'I don't know.' I selected 'I don't know,' but I don't know if that makes a difference.

Experian_company_representative

The credit utilisation measure on revolving credit excludes overdrafts, so just concentrate on your card balances/limits. Credit scoring typically rewards unused available credit (hence the utilisation and highest credit limit indicators), longstanding relationships with lenders (hence the average age of your accounts) and successfully completing a credit agreement and closing it. That will of course come with time. These measures typically appear in scorecards used by a wide selection of major lenders, so it's certainly worth taking heed of this advice.

James

Stephen_C.

Experian_company_representative wrote: »

The credit utilisation measure on revolving credit excludes overdrafts, so just concentrate on your card balances/limits. Credit scoring typically rewards unused available credit (hence the utilisation and highest credit limit indicators), longstanding relationships with lenders (hence the average age of your accounts) and successfully completing a credit agreement and closing it. That will of course come with time. These measures typically appear in scorecards used by a wide selection of major lenders, so it's certainly worth taking heed of this advice.

James

Could you please elaborate on "successfully completing a credit agreement and closing it." How am I not doing this by paying off my card in full every month? Should I be only paying the minimum and then paying off the balance later with interest paid?

sfax

You don't have a credit agreement for each month individually. The agreement ends when you cancel the card

Stephen_C.

sfax wrote: »

You don't have a credit agreement for each month individually. The agreement ends when you cancel the card

Ok, thanks for explaining that. But despite the benefit of having closed a credit agreement, I understand it is generally best not to cancel cards you don't use - because this would reduce your available credit and therefore increase your utilisation?

sfax

Stephen_C. wrote: »

Ok, thanks for explaining that. But despite the benefit of having closed a credit agreement, I understand it is generally best not to cancel cards you don't use - because this would reduce your available credit and therefore increase your utilisation?

It depends. Having too much credit available can hamper applications for more credit and unused cards can incur charges, have their limits reduced or even be cancelled by the lender

If you can get a new card first with the same limit and then close the existing card, you'll get a zero net effect but add a settled account.

The settling of accounts is about demonstrating you can manage credit sensibly. It's more applicable to loans IMO as people use credit cards in different ways (e.g. only for cashback, rewards or section 75 in some cases)

I would always keep at least 2 credit cards, use them both, always pay them on time and pay more than the minimum, and aim for max 40% utilisation.

sfax

matttye wrote: »

Your stubbornness is silly when you're talking to someone who has had two trials.

When signing up for a free trial they have three options to the question 'Have you had a free trial before?' : 'Yes,' 'No' and 'I don't know.' I selected 'I don't know,' but I don't know if that makes a difference.

lol. Seriously, this may have worked once in your particualar case for some reason but it definitely won't work in general, and probably won't work again for you. But feel free to try it.

iAMaLONDONER

matttye wrote: »

Your stubbornness is silly when you're talking to someone who has had two trials.

When signing up for a free trial they have three options to the question 'Have you had a free trial before?' : 'Yes,' 'No' and 'I don't know.' I selected 'I don't know,' but I don't know if that makes a difference.

It didn't work for me- it recognized that I've used it before