I've ruined his credit rating, what can I do?

suzieq

I hope this is in the right place....

Since I became pregnant with our daughter in 2004, I've 'looked after' (albeit not very well) the household finances. OH is worse than me, so if I'd let him do it, we'd probably be in a far worse state than we are now.

Anyway, I've been trying to shift a CC debt for him to another card, but the last 3 have come back declined. I've just ordered Credit Expert, and his credit rating that was previously 'excellent', is now poor, and looking through the report, it's all my fault. Things like not paying the odd Next acct payment on time, and not immediately setting up DDs for a new credit card, therefore making the first payment late, or whatever, but I've ruined his credit rating, and it's all down to late payments. _pale_

What can I do? Is there anything I can do? We're now paying something like 4.9% on an Amex LOB card, and god knows what rate on an RBOS. We've always been able to shift the debt to a 0% elsewhere, but that doesn't look possible now.

Can anyone help me? I'm such a dunce.

blackangeluk

I'm afraid I am no expert but as far as I can see only time and good management will repair the credit. There is a link somewhere on here (not very good with links!) that I have read from Martin advising what to do.

Lots of searches on your rating go against you as do late payments etc. All I could suggest is setting up DD's to pay min payments and try and repair it over time.

Can you ask RBOS for a LOB rate as well - no harm in asking.............

I would not apply for another card for a while as well, I read that if they see 2+ searches in the last 6 months it can go against you (although I do stand to be corrected)

immoral_angeluk

There isn't a lot you can do to fix his credit rating I'm afraid... does he know?

suzieq

immoral_angeluk wrote: »

There isn't a lot you can do to fix his credit rating I'm afraid... does he know?

Not at the moment, but he will do later. I think he'll be ok, a bit naffed off, but he knows some late payments have been made, and he knows the last couple of CC applications have been dclined, so he's probably twigged that something's not right.

Thanks for the info blackangel, I'll look for that article.

Does anyone know how long these late payments take to stop affecting his credit?

Obv I'll make damn sure from now on that all DDs and payments are made immediately.

I went through a period of post-natal depression last year, and lots of things went by the wayside. *sigh*

xgingerx

Hi dont know your exact circumstances but me and my wife pretty much had seperate fianances, but when we applied for a joint account we then became linked which would then take into account both our files. For me it was very simple as the only thing linking us was out joint account, we closed this, left it a few months and then I wrote to the credit reference agencies to add a notice of dissociation which means anyone searching my file would only see my credit history as I was no longer associated with my wife (Credit Wise)

At the time I did have an excellent rating before my wife had defaults ccj etc, and after I was getting penalised for her adverse credt, after I checked it a few months later after being dissociated my rating returned back to Excellent as all my wifes adverse credit had dissapeared showing my file back to spotless.

Unfortuantly now I have debt problems of my own

But this is an option if he were to dissociate from yourself, all depends on what financial links you have with each other, if youve got any loans / credit cards you could pay them off and close them, if you have a mortgage then this is more difficult.

Hope this helps, might not be right for you but it worked for me in my case but like i said we were only linked through a Joint account which we closed.

But in future I would always advise that even when married you keep your credit seperate and ensure you dont become linked, this will give you another option should one of you get into difficulty.

Good Luck

angchris

hiya, well done for seeking help you are not a dunce at all but what you have done is learn a valuable lesson! your best bet is to stick with the lob card and stop applying for new cards for 6 months or so at least because everytime you apply it is held on file.
now you realise what an effect missed/late payments can have on your credit rating now is the time to make tripley (is that a word? ) sure that bills are paid on time and at the correct amount each month it just means taking that extra time to get organised.
Next are notoriously high apr and quite honestly it would be the last place i would buy something on tick, why not try picking up next clothes on ebay with real money rather than it costing you loads extra in charges/interest using the next account.
make sure you control your money before it all gets out of hand and it starts to control you, keep your hard earned cash in your pocket rather than give it to companies that are lining up to take it off you, make it work for you and not against you.
with a bit of effort you should be able to turn oh`s credit rating around and i wish you all the best...angchris

suzieq

Thanks for that Ginger, we have a joint acct but we do have a joint mortgage also, which we took out last year (though prior to that it was only in his name) on a 5 year fixed term, so I don't think that will be possible.

It has, however, just occurred to me that he still has an active Virgin CC acct with £0 balance, and they keep sending him letter offering bal tfr rates - hmmm, I wonder if they'll give us a LOB rate?? Worth asking. We also have an Egg card, which we used only to pay off our TV after the HFC intro rate had ended, and I know that has about £3k available.

I think I need to sit down with OH, get together all the balances and % rates, and work out the best step from here.

suzieq

Thanks angchris, yes, I have learned a valuable lesson. I had planned on paying the Next off almost immediately, but as with lots of other things, it fell by the wayside :doh:I think that'll be paid off imminently, it's only £100 :rolleyes:

suzieq

Oh, and one other thing - will paying off that Next a/c improve things? I'll be paying it off anyway, but once it's settled, does that look better?

angchris

does oh really need to know the ins n outs of his credit rating? i`d be tempted to keep shtumm :shhh: so long as you make an effort to sort it out it should disappear of its own accord given a little time.
i do however think that it would be a good idea to sit down with oh and do a soa and create a workable monthly budget to live from, post it on here if you`d like a little help along the way im sure we could suggest things you might not of thought of before.

xgingerx

Hi Szzie, its difficult to answer some your questions exactly as we dont know your full circumstances , ie No of account, Available Credit vrs Used, are u near to your limits so u have lots of available credit etc etc.

But can give you some guidelines,

Credit Card Shuffle - Which is in Martins info under credit cards

Snowballing your debts, paying off the highest interest first, so in the long run playing less overall interest.

It is always advised to keep your debt on your credit cards below 70'ish % of the available credit so it doesnt look like you lving on credit

It is always better from a credit file point of view not to max any one acount out, so better to spreadthing out a bit.

If you pay your next card off, I would leave it open as sometimes reducing your available credit can look like you are now using more of your available credit if you know what i mean.

This subject is so vast and so many factors play a part it really is too much write down here.

Leave it at least six months before you apply for any credit (even mobile phones) Searches although they stay on your file for a year only affect your score for 6 months and then your score returns to what it was before you made the application.

Missed payments do affect your score but over time they will become insignificant, ie you paid the last 2 years perfect, most will not take this into account, if you apply again in 6 months it is likely to be to soon as it will look quite recent you missed payments, also how late were you if its just one it wont make much difference providing you were spotless before and it looks like a one off mistake.

Hope this helps