CCJ on Credit file

Wendy23

My husband and I were really pleased last week when we checked out credit files and found that he is now rated as Good and me as Fair on Experian. However, my husband is still being turned down for loans and I tried just to see and got turned down for a loan which Experian recommended I would be suitable for at an APR 49.9%!

I had a CCJ which was satisfied and paid of within 1 month of being issued. I have been on payment plans with my creditors for several years, but my husband has always been up to date with his payments. Also, I feel behind with the payments on a joint secured loan we had last year, although this has now been brought up to date.

So now we have established that the credit ratings are all utter nonsense, is there any way we can find out how long we will be financial pariahs in the eyes of lenders? Is there anything practical we can be doing to actually improve our actual credit ratings (other than cancelling our experian subscriptions and using that to pay down debts). Can I assume that even if we make a herculean effort to pay down our debts we will still be uncreditworthy due to the history and CCJ or is there a light at the end of the tunnel.

It is all very very very depressing. Even though I am now in a secure and well paid job, after years struggling in self employment I feel as though we will never get out of this hole. Just to give you some background we have £35k unsecured debts between us, mortgage £150k and secured loan (which has crippled us) of £37k (home is approx £200k). Most of the debts went to help a relative in dire need who did not ever pay us back despite the fact we had to borrow on credit cards to help them out. :(

Thanks in advance for any help.

Tixy

Cancelling the subscription to Experian is a good start!

Have you only checked your experian files so far? if so then I'd suggest checking your equifax and callcredit files as well. Equifax either the £2 statutory report or the free trial (cancel within a month). Callcredit you can check for free at noddle.

Your title is CCJ on credit file - is it actually showing on your experian file (I assume not as you paid within a month)? If it doesn't appear on any credit file then potential lenders won't know about it and it isn't what is stopping you getting accepted for credit.

Though late payments on the joint secured loan will certainly be a big flag to potential lenders. What else shows on your credit files? do you have defaults from your lenders still showing?

If equifax and noddle don't show any other major red flags then you are probably being declined due to those late payments and possibly due to your existing level of debts and perceived affordability.

National_Debtline

Hi Wendy23,

You seem to be juggling a lot of different things from your message so I hope I can help to clarify some of the issues you are facing.

First of all if you paid your CCJ within 1 calendar month of it being entered against you and you can prove this – through bank statements and court letters - you could send copies of these to Experian and ask them to remove the CCJ from your credit file. The only reason a CCJ would show on your credit file is if it wasn’t paid within the first month following the judgment date. This may help start to make improvements to your score, but unfortunately, credit files are complicated documents and do take a long time to improve.

The overall score is constantly influenced by many factors (all at the same times), things such as your age, whether or not you are a homeowner and/or on the electoral roll, anyone you have financial associations with and, of course, your financial history. If you are still in payment plans with your debts then this will be negative to future lenders, especially if there are defaults. You may struggle to make any significant improvements to your credit scores until you are debt free. Once the debt is cleared you will be able to improve the score more effectively.

In addition, the more recent the information is on your credit file, the more influence it tends to have. So the missed payments from the joint secured loan may also be a large contributor to your score at the moment. And finally, because you and your husband have joint debts your credit files will influence each other’s. So even if he is up to date with his debts, because your debts are on payment plans, this may be negative to his overall score. We do have a factsheet about this that may help you further - https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/05 EW Credit reference agencies and credit reports/Default.aspx

Laura
@natdebtline

Wendy23

Thank you both for your responses. I have signed up with Noddle which is great! My score is 1/5 which explains my problem!

Moving forward, how long is it going to take to get to the point where I will be able to gain credit again? We have no intention of getting further into debt but we are desperate to move house and we are effectively trapped where we are. Also what should I be doing as a first priority to improve my creditfile?

I am making payments on an informal debt management plan with all of my debtors, which I am up to date with. They are still showing as in default on Noddle though, is that right?

Thanks again.

Tixy

Accounts with defaults stay on your credit file for 6 years from the date of default (as shown on the file). After that the whole account and default will drop off your credit file.

So check the dates of defaults on those accounts as a starting point.

The only other thing you can really do is ensure you don't miss any more payments on anything, and the older the missed payments on the none defaulted accounts get the less of an impact they will have.

In terms of hoping to move to a new property - would your existing lender allow you to port the existing mortgage to a new property?
If you are really desperate to move have you considered selling up and paying off the debts and renting for a while before buying again?

Wendy23

Tixy wrote: »

If you are really desperate to move have you considered selling up and paying off the debts and renting for a while before buying again?

Thanks again for your help. My major concern with this plan would be, how long after paying off all my debts would it take for my credit position to improve? If we are talking years we would be unlikely to ever get back on the housing ladder.

Plus we don't have enough equity to pay off all of our debts so we would still need time after selling up to finish off clearing up our debts.

It's such a miserable position to be in. I really can't see that there will ever be a light at the end of the tunnel for us.

Tixy

It depends what shows on your credit files.

Any accounts with defaults will drop off 6 years from the date of default.
Any accounts without a default will stay on your file for 6 years from the date of settlement, and so any missed payments on those could be visible for some years (but as they get older they'd have less of an impact on your ability to get credit).

Wendy23

I have just double checked my file and the great news is the biggest debts that account for over £8k of my debts and the major ones in default, first defaulted in 2010 so they should come off my credit record over the course of next year!

Sorry for all the questions, but I presume that this means that they will completely disappear from my credit record even though I haven't paid them off? Or am I being naive?