How long to restore credit rating once debts are paid and can I speed the process up?

bigmike30

Hi guys, new member, first post so go easy on me... lol

About five years ago I split up with my now ex-wife, we had a couple of credit cards each and a loan which were fairly maxed out but were being paid at the time so were in 'good order'. I was earning a decent salary at the time so we pretty much just had whatever we wanted and paid it back over time... I know, sickening isn't it? I'm not that person anymore!
Unfortunately after we seperated and I had set up home elsewhere but was still paying for the marital home I was badly assaulted and broke my right leg in four places, I was unable to work for a long time and my life pretty much fell apart from then and I ended up owing a lot of people a lot of money that i didnt have... my wife decided to move out of the home that we had shared which did me a lot of favours tbh (it was my house, i had bought it before we met) so with a lot of help from friends I tarted the house up and rented it out and went to live for free at my mums for a while... good old mum!
What this meant was that the mortgage was/has always been paid on time and I had a meagre profit of around £100 once I'd put a little away each month into a slush fund for the house. I used a little bit of the £100 a month to buy 'vintage/retro' items from charity and sold these on ebay to create a modest business. I was living but i couldnt afford to pay my debts off...
Fast forward five years and I am now back living in my home with my new partner and our baby son. Once my leg was better (though I now have chronic arthritis in my ankle joint at 30 years old, I was able to start working again.
I started to pay my debts off straight away and by this time the charges had stacked up somewhat but with my increased earnings I was able to invest more into the business and I now deal in classic cars and parts as well as vintage items. The business really picked up about a year ago and I have now (literally last month) paid off every last penny of debt so life is lokking pretty good again.
I wanted to write this story here both as inspiration for others that are feeling like I did a few years ago to show that with hard work and determination you can succeed but I also have a few questions about where i go next.
The first is that now that my debts are paid, how long will it take to have a good credit score again? bearing in mind that i had one or two ccj's but on the plus side i maintained my mortgage payments throughout, on time, every month.
The reasons i want this info is two things, whilst cutting costs all those years ago i switched my mortgage to interest free on a new deal which will be up in 4 years. I am fearful that despite always paying and now being debt free that i wont be able to renew my mortgage.
I also now have some excess income that I would like to invest into property asap but again im concerned about getting mortgages with my previous credit history.
Does anyone have any advice on the above?
thanks for reading,
Big Mike!

Candyapple

What do your credit files look like now? If you haven't already, you need to obtain copies from all 3 agencies first.

Experian

Equifax

Call Credit aka Noddle


Do you still have any CCJs/defaults?

When was your last late payment date?