Credit Rating

Bird1978

Hi All

I had a bit of a tough time in 2011 and fell into bit of debt

£600 Argos card - ended up being a CCJ cleared in 2013
£1200 Tesco Credit Card - Defaulted will be cleared March 2015
£3000 Lloyds TSB card - Defaulted £1200 Remaining
£300 Cabot financial From Overdraft Cleared Feb 2014

Debt at time £5,100 - Debt today £1,120

I followed the advice on the forums with regard to improving credit score - i applied for a credit card with Capital one for people with a bad creit score, i spend £20 a month and then pay it straight off to show my ability to pay and not get in debt

I no longer go overdrawn

I seem to pass credit checks for getting a rented flat, changing my pre payment electric meter to a quarterly etc etc but cannot change my bank account, or get any other credit.

My credit score remains very poor

any advice for anything else i can do or is it just a matter of time and keep doing what i'm doing

Getting frustrated no matterhow hard i try to improve it

Candyapple

What are the dates of the defaults and the CCJ?

Bird1978

thanks for the reply September 2011

Candyapple

As they are 3 years old, nothing you can do except carry on as you are with keeping up payments and getting those green zeroes on your credit files.

I have read on here someone gaining a current account with Nationwide I think it was with a 4 year old default, so time is the healer.

MrJester

Do you pay off your Capital One card literally immediately?
E.g. Tuesday spend £20 Thursday pay it off.

Because this wont do anything for your credit, it will act as if there was never a payment. You have to wait until the statement comes up.
So best thing to do is to set the card to pay itself off in full each month via direct debit.

Bird1978

thanks for the advice - yes i have a direct debit set up to pay it off after the statement date

KirstyO

I think you are heading in the right direction, but persistence is key.


Some of it also luck.


I have a default on my file that is 3 years old in May. Just this week I was accepted for a TSB classic plus account on the online application, with no need for them to do further checks. I've been on my debt-busting basic account since Feb 2012 which pays me no interest and doesn't offer me facilities to even apply for credit. I don't necessarily want to do this, but I would like to earn interest on my income and maybe apply for a cheque book if I ever needed one.


I also have a 'rebuilder' credit card from Barclaycard, which I am paying off in full every month (ALWAYS wait for your statement to be produced otherwise to the credit card provider it doesn't look like you are borrowing)


I think the CCJ will be the thing stopping you getting the bank accounts and so on.


Keep at it, check your report with Noddle monthly, and get your Experian and Equifax reports annually to make sure everything on there is fair. I like opening up all my active accounts to show that since the months around the start of my DMP, everything is generally now green. It makes me feel like although I was in trouble, I've sorted it and got lots of green dots to prove it!


I'm hoping to apply for a mortgage in the next couple of years but want to wait as long as possible so that the default is as old as possible!