Very Poor Credit Score

GazOct

Signed up to experian and I've got a credit score 451 which is very poor. I'm getting refused for something even as basic as an aqua start card so how can I better my credit score? Or will I have to wait 6 years

Thrugelmir

You need to identify the reasons why.

Are you registered on the electoral roll (and have been previously for a number of years)?

GazOct

I've been on electoral roll for 4 years 8 months at this address. I've 6 settled accounts, 2 accounts satisfactory, 2 defaults and a court judgement. Hope this helps?

pinnit2014

Your defaults will drop off after 6 years - then you'll have more options - unlikely that any competitive lender will lend prior to this. Forget about the score, just keep paying you active accounts on time and the credit repair work will continue.

Experian_company_representative

Hi GazOct,

To improve your report make sure the active accounts you have are kept up to date, and then work toward paying the CCJ, (Once it's paid contact the court so that they can get it updated to show as satisfied). Whenthe judgment is cleared focus on the defaults if they have not yet been satisfied.

Once everything is up to date, then it will be a matter of limiting the number of new applications you make. As the defaults and judgment get older they will have less of an impact, until the drop off after six years as has been mentioned.

I would be happy to take a closer look at your report for you, if you email your details to [EMAIL="uksocialsupport@experian.com"]uksocialsupport@experian.com[/EMAIL] I can do this

Regards
Neil

Brains64

I have a very poor score myself to be honest, I'm registered with Experian, I like them on the whole but just the same as with a lot of other Credit Monitoring services, Experian seem a lot quicker at updating bad news on our reports than they do good news, eg, miss a repayment on a loan or credit card account and it's on there at the end of the month bright and early, on the other hand, catch up with the payments and....errrrrr....all of a sudden there seems to be a delay in getting that information onto the records which of course then impacts on our chances of even getting a bad credit loan.

I will be fair to Experian and all of them though and say that this speed of light bad news and slow good news discrepancy might be more to do with the creditors because a lot of them use reporting missed payments as a punishment if they can't get their money off of someone, where as when someone pays on time then because they've got their money, they don't have any incentive to report it as fast.

The other thing that I don't find very helpful and I know it's meant with good intentions from Experian and all of them but I find it rather hollow advice being told that to improve my credit score 'I need to make sure I keep up repayments and make them on time'....uh....like...tell me the bleed'n obvious will ya?, of course if I could make the repayments on time I would, just the little matter of no cash flow, this is a bit like telling someone in the middle of the desert that they need to drink water...yes...of course we do but there's not a lot of water about, I know, budgeting and all that but again, this is a lot easier said than done with the cost of everything and rents are not exactly falling down, more like the opposite, just saying.

just.me_3

Don't worry too much about your credit score - lenders do not see this. It gives you a very rough indication of your credit worthiness, but don't concentrate on the score, it's calculated by the credit reference agency. You need to concentrate on the actual account information on the report., as this is what lenders will look at.

Each lender has their own criteria for whether they will offer you credit, and their rules vary. For example a credit card company may have a rule in place that if you have a CCJ on your report, they will not grant credit. However another credit card company may have a rule that if you have a CCJ which is settled and over 2 years old, they may give you credit. It all depends on the individual lender, so don't be disheartened if you can't get credit from one place, as others may grant it to you.

However, don't keep applying. Wait a few months between applications, and don't try and apply with a company you've been refused with before.

Look at the following first -

Make sure your name and address is correct
Make sure you are on the electoral roll
If you have defaulted accounts, they'll drop off after 6 years
Check each account - is the status correct?
Keep on top of any open accounts, pay them in full each month

If you are struggling with any repayments, contact the creditors to arrange a plan. This can prevent the account going into default.

Thrugelmir

Brains64 wrote: »

The other thing that I don't find very helpful and I know it's meant with good intentions from Experian and all of them but I find it rather hollow advice being told that to improve my credit score 'I need to make sure I keep up repayments and make them on time'....uh....like...tell me the bleed'n obvious will ya?,

You would be surprised how many people fail to grasp even this the most basic of concepts.

Brains64

just.me wrote: »

Don't worry too much about your credit score - lenders do not see this. It gives you a very rough indication of your credit worthiness, but don't concentrate on the score, it's calculated by the credit reference agency. You need to concentrate on the actual account information on the report., as this is what lenders will look at.

Each lender has their own criteria for whether they will offer you credit, and their rules vary. For example a credit card company may have a rule in place that if you have a CCJ on your report, they will not grant credit. However another credit card company may have a rule that if you have a CCJ which is settled and over 2 years old, they may give you credit. It all depends on the individual lender, so don't be disheartened if you can't get credit from one place, as others may grant it to you.

However, don't keep applying. Wait a few months between applications, and don't try and apply with a company you've been refused with before.

Look at the following first -

Make sure your name and address is correct
Make sure you are on the electoral roll
If you have defaulted accounts, they'll drop off after 6 years
Check each account - is the status correct?
Keep on top of any open accounts, pay them in full each month

If you are struggling with any repayments, contact the creditors to arrange a plan. This can prevent the account going into default.

Yup, that's about the size of it, it's the detail of exactly how their systems work that is shrouded in some level of mystery, my guess...and it is only a guess is that during an application, rather than reading the whole lot, their system quickly auto skims positive and negative keywords on a report, eg, 'Default', 'CCJ' 'Settled Account', 'Payments On Time' etc, which their system then gives someone their own score on and if it falls below their criteria mark they don't get a loan, so they use a score but it's not the one on the report, it's their own score based on their own criteria as you say, this is what I've deduced but there's still a lot of it that I don't get, I guess the reason why the whole system is so secret is for security, fraud prevention etc.

Thrugelmir

Brains64 wrote: »

Yup, that's about the size of it, it's the detail of exactly how their systems work that is shrouded in some level of mystery, my guess...and it is only a guess is that during an application, rather than reading the whole lot, their system quickly auto skims positive and negative keywords on a report, eg, 'Default', 'CCJ' 'Settled Account', 'Payments On Time' etc, which their system then gives someone their own score on and if it falls below their criteria mark they don't get a loan, so they use a score but it's not the one on the report, it's their own score based on their own criteria as you say, this is what I've deduced but there's still a lot of it that I don't get, I guess the reason why the whole system is so secret is for security, fraud prevention etc.

Lenders set their own criteria on the grounds of commerciality. In summary what's the risk, what's our target market of customer etc. So very much a birds eye view looking down on the basis of running multi pound loan books. Whereas individuals look upwards, and try and relate lending decisions to their own circumstances which isn't how it works.