Credit rating question

Chinman_2

Hi. I'm carefully monitoring my credit report as I'm planning on getting a finance deal on a new car.

A bit of background credit info:

Despite that fact that I have closed an unused capital one card which had a limit of £800 and registering on the electoral roll it seems my score has gone down as the only credit card I have left is a Barclaycard which I opened 8 months ago for the free balance transfer. The limit £1k and current balance about £800.
My Experian rating is 814. I also am still not showing on the electoral roll.

My question is will it boost it up if I pay off the card balance completely and either close the Barclaycard or keep it open.

And does it matter that I asked to be on the edited electoral roll only?

Thanks for any help.

Experian_company_representative

Hopefully this Q&A should help with the question on credit cards:

http://www.experian.co.uk/consumer/questions/askjames289.html

On the electoral roll, CRAs use the full registers so you don't need to worry about opting out of the edited register affecting your credit rating.

James

sirwiggum

First things first, the golden rule of this board is that the 'credit score' is arbitrary.
It is more of a guide to the end user as to how the CRA sees your credit worthiness.
Creditors do not use it, they get the basic data of your accounts and make a decision based on this.

The reason why this score may have decreased is that your percentage of debt against available credit has increased.

800 debt against 1000 + 800 = 44.44%

800 debt against 1000 = 80%

I think the rough consensus on the board is to have around 30% when applying for credit products.

That said, a car finance will at least be secured against the car, and it would also help if you had a bit of deposit against it.

If you have no defaults, CCJs etc or other nasties on your account, you shouldn't need to worry much.

Chinman_2

Thank you for your help and advice guys. Much appreciated.