Credit Score 2013 (776 EXPERIAN), bankrupt Aug 2010.

sonnet80s

Hi, I've just signed up to Experian for a 30 days trial to see what my credit score is like.

Prior to bankruptcy I'd always had a pretty flawless credit history but a change in career, reduction in earnings and subsequent gambling addiction has caused me to destroy that pretty much.

I'm all new to this so I'd welcome any advice somebody with far better knowledge of the credit scoring system would be willing to offer me. I'm saving now and ideally I would like to get a mortgage around mid 2017. Is that feasible?

This is what the report said: Score 776 'Fair'

NEGATIVE = 1
You have an account regarded as defaulted or delinquent



POSITIVE = 4

The usage of your available credit indicates a lower risk


You have no recent searches on your credit report


The age of your accounts indicates lenders are likely to view you as lower risk



You have a significant number of successfully settled credit accounts



I currently have a credit card and a mobile phone contract. My debit card is a basic account which was designed for a bankrupt and I've never sought to upgrade it.

There's 20 records held re granting of credit to me, 7 of which are 'default' from my banruptcy in Aug 2010. QUESTION: The 'default' dates for these 7 vary, the most recent being 14/1/11, the rest are mostlt Aug & Sept of 2010. The earliest is Feb 2010, 2 are in July 2010. Is this good, bad or irrelevant? Thanks

I had a brief slip and was gambling Jan and Feb of this year, thankfully I haven't gambled since then. During that period I took out a number of short term loans from Wonga.com and Lending Stream, fortunately I was in a position to repay the loans I took out extremely promptly. Has that paradoxically benefitted my credit rating? I obviously don't intend to use such companies again.

Anything I can do other than keep up with credit card payments and mobile phone contract?

Finally, I notice that I appear in public searches as being bankrupt 3/8/2010 will this be removed in 2016? Can I enforce this removal.

TheGardener

Well done for beating your addiction - I hope that continues for you. I'm no expert but from what I have read on here, credit scores are pretty meaningless for BR's until the BR falls off the record after 6 years. If you follow the CRF clean-up advice (see the stickies) and build a good credit history it will be the best way to try for a mortgage in 2017. Others on here have been successful in getting mortgages but not without some hurdles to overcome.

Despite BR not being a criminal offence, although it will drop off your credit file, the BR record will stay on the London Gazette forever and it appears there is nothing that can be done about that. However, my understanding is that the IS website should not show in ordinary google type searches but again, some seem to find it does.

sonnet80s

Thanks for the reply.

Re the defaults, a couple have dates before my BR.

1 for example is Feb 2010 and I then went BR Aug 2010.

In that case should I not even concern myself with trying to get the correct dates as during BR, it is in effect correct as I defaulted on that bill in Feb 2010.

So will it drop off Feb 2016? Whilst the majority drop off July/Aug/Sept 2016?

One is default as of Feb 2011 so is that one I could seek to get amended so it would drop off Aug 2016 rather than Feb 2017.

Hope I have explained things clearly in that regard.

GettingHopeful

Hi Sonnet 8os

Very interested in your questions as I am in a similar situation.

I became bankrupt in June 2009 and am anxious now to clean up asap as I may need a credit reference if I need to arrange for somewhere else to live.

From what I have read on the Experian and also Equifax,the debts simply fall off after 6 years from the default date.

This is something of a problem for me as they are showing defaults as later than the bankruptcy, and I feel that the default dates should be the bankruptcy date at the latest.

Does anyone know if this is right and that I can ask the companies concerned the show the correct default dates?

There is a remarkable difference between the two credit reference companies, Equifax showing many more than Experian. Nearly all are showing as default instead of "settled" as they have not been updated, so I have quite a bit of work to do.

Experian is showing the same sort of results with mine, but interestingly I was "poor" in October and I have suddenly gone to "fair" today, November. They are saying there are two positives now, only one last month, the two being the age of most of the accounts, and that there have been no credit searches. I have an O2 account, and credit card with Vanquis which i clear each month plus an account in credit with Fashion World, but none of this has changed, the enquiry from Vanquis was in April and the other two are longstanding pre BR accounts that were not cancelled.

Maybe we could keep in touch and exchange thoughts on all this?

As with yourself, my main concern now is whether I am entitled to ask for the dates of the defaults to be corrected.

TheGardener

Use the Clean up stickie at the top of the forum page to do this. You can and should get the defaults to be no later than your BR

BugsyBrowne

TheGardener wrote: »

Well done for beating your addiction - I hope that continues for you. I'm no expert but from what I have read on here, credit scores are pretty meaningless for BR's until the BR falls off the record after 6 years. If you follow the CRF clean-up advice (see the stickies) and build a good credit history it will be the best way to try for a mortgage in 2017. Others on here have been successful in getting mortgages but not without some hurdles to overcome.

Despite BR not being a criminal offence, although it will drop off your credit file, the BR record will stay on the London Gazette forever and it appears there is nothing that can be done about that. However, my understanding is that the IS website should not show in ordinary google type searches but again, some seem to find it does.

Credit scores are meaningless whether you're BR or not as they don't exist.

Experian_company_representative

The bankruptcy will drop off your report when it reaches six years old. Some lenders may take issue with the fact that you've been bankrupt in the past but many are more interested in your more recent credit history, so try to make sure you stay on top of things from now on and your credit rating should keep improving.

James