Building Up A Credit Score

kah22

I've a friend who was out of the country for a long number of years. They spent their time working in America and Europe. In Europe they had a business that went burst and that brought about a major breakdown. They are now back in the UK and starting to rebuild their lives. That's the back story.

As of now all my friend has is a debit card and a small bank account. They never had credit before in the UK so I'm assuming there is no credit rating for them here. So what's the best way to go about building up a credit score?

I'm a great fan of Credit Unions and we have a marvellous one where I live. Would it be sensible to get her to join the CU and borrow small amounts of money from them say £50 to £100 on a regular basis and pay it back very quickly; even if she takes it out this week, puts it in the bottom draw and pays it back in two weeks-time. Would doing that be of any value? My thinking is that she is borrowing money and paying it back very quickly it is showing up on some credit reference agency. Would that be a way of appearing on the good side of a credit agency's radar? The whole idea would never be to borrow more than she had in shares.

The whole idea is to get my friend to a point where they can realistically apply for credit if need be for say the like of a car.

grumbler

kah22 wrote: »

So what's the best way to go about building up a credit score?

A mobile contract, probably sim-only for the start.
A store card.
AFAIK, even some letting agents and utility companies report to CRAs now.

I don't know about credit unions.

The whole idea is to get my friend to a point where they can realistically apply for credit if need be for say the like of a car.

Personally, I would never buy a car on credit. It's very easy to save for buying a decent car outright.

The_Boss

Get them to post on the credit file forum after having a read of the threads (most common queries are already dealt with on the first page) - lots of good advice there.

Wire

Tell them to put their details into Experian or Equifax and they have a tool that will recommend which credit card to get. experian is free for the first month but make sure to call up and cancel.before the month is up.
Just use the card once a month and pay up within the period shown

manami_mnm

I don't think that credit unions report to credit rating agencies or even using them to determine loan decisions.