How long.......

christologymum

Would a new account be seen as a bad thing? ie car fiance taken out Nov 2013, so nearly 6 months, when will it be classed as not a new account if that makes sense.

Secondly how long will a search be seen as a neg thing, ie a search was made in Jan how long before the impact of that is reduced?

Thirdly if there is a late payment showing on an account, how much difference does it make if it is settled as opposed to open? i know it stays for 6 years, but does settling the account make any difference at all?

Thanks in advance

Tixy

1) 6 months of payment history should be sufficent to demonstrate affordability of the car finance. The account will still obviously be taken in to account by a potential lender but no different to an older account.

2) With searches the possible risk for a new potential lender is that you took out finance in January that hasn't yet appeared as a credit account on your credit file (and so its harder for them to assess your affordability and indebtedness).
Usually a credit account would appear within 3months so after that the impact should be less. after 6months any searches should have a negligible impact.

3) Settling the account means that the late payment will actually mean the late payment could be visible for longer. As when an account is closed the last 6years of payment history before closure is usually kept.
If its just a single late payment more than a few months ago I expect for most lenders it would make negligible difference as to whether the account is still open or closed.

christologymum

Ok thanks for that.
Also another question (thanks) when looking at your files do lenders just look at age of account, missed payments, limits etc, or do they examine how much you are paying each month, if you have gone over limit etc.

The reason I ask is my hubby had 2.5 k on a card, he used to throw about 1k off it every month, sometimes more but he'd then spend on it again so would prob only ay 200/300 a month of it. Would that be seen in a a bad light, plus a couple of other cc which were lower interest so hed just pay min payment. All are now cleared and zero but wondering when apply for mortgage how much depth they will look at.