rebuilding credit rating

kezzygirl

Hello, hoping you can help.

Hubby and I are looking at rebuilding our credit rating, as we have had financial difficulties in the past. We both have a 'poor' rating on noddle.

I have seen advice which states to apply for a couple of 'poor credit' credit cards and use these month to month and pay off when the bill comes. I have an aqua card, and have just applied for and been approved for a capital one credit card.

Hubby has a santander credit card which he has had for seven years- should he close this? does the fact that he has had it for years go against him? He has also just applied for, and been approved for the same capital one card as me.

The capital one application form asked if I wanted an additional card holder- I ticked no, as hubby will have his own account. If I were to change my mind, and we closed his capital one account and had him as an additional card holder, would his credit rating be built alongside mine?

Also, if we went shopping, paid for it on the credit card, got home and transferred the money to the credit card immediately, would this be ok to build our credit rating?

apologies for all of the questions, thanks for your responses

Candyapple

kezzygirl wrote: »

Hubby has a santander credit card which he has had for seven years- should he close this? does the fact that he has had it for years go against him? He has also just applied for, and been approved for the same capital one card as me.

No, keep the Santander card. Always good to have a back-up card. The fact that he has had it for a long time works in his favour, not against him, as it shows lenders his history of repayments and also how he handles credit.

kezzygirl wrote: »

The capital one application form asked if I wanted an additional card holder- I ticked no, as hubby will have his own account. If I were to change my mind, and we closed his capital one account and had him as an additional card holder, would his credit rating be built alongside mine?

No. If he closed his Cap 1 card it will just show as closed on his file. Additional card holder doesn't financially link you and it would not build up his credit rating as it wouldn't show on his file.

kezzygirl wrote: »

Also, if we went shopping, paid for it on the credit card, got home and transferred the money to the credit card immediately, would this be ok to build our credit rating?

Far better to set up the direct debit for 'full balance' every month and just keep the money you spend aside for this until the DD is due. Otherwise you run the risk of no data/account being reported as not used to the credit reference agencies because between statement dates your balance would always be zero.

amfan

kezzygirl wrote: »

I have seen advice which states to apply for a couple of 'poor credit' credit cards and use these month to month and pay off when the bill comes. I have an aqua card, and have just applied for and been approved for a capital one credit card.

Hubby has a santander credit card which he has had for seven years- should he close this? does the fact that he has had it for years go against him? He has also just applied for, and been approved for the same capital one card as me.

Hi, I think when it suggests to apply for a couple of 'poor credit' credit cards it assumes that you don't already hold a credit card, and wouldn't get accepted for a mainstream card. If your husband already has a credit card from Santander then he can use this as well as any other to show future lenders that he can handle credit responsibly.

The idea is that you use the credit card to buy things that you would normally buy - say all of your petrol for the month. And then you pay this off in full every month. The best way I found of doing that was to put the amount the petrol came to into a seperate account each time, and then transfer this back to the account the direct debit comes out of just ahead of the direct debit being taken.

It is slowly but surely, it's not a magic fix. It is simply a case of future lenders that you have a history of being able to pay your bills as they are due.

kezzygirl

Thankyou for your help!!!

Thrugelmir

kezzygirl wrote: »

Also, if we went shopping, paid for it on the credit card, got home and transferred the money to the credit card immediately, would this be ok to build our credit rating?

Credit ratings are lost rather than built. Restoring a credit rating simply requires good account conduct over a period of time. The worse the previous history the more time it will take to restore. There's no quick fixes.

kezzygirl

I understand that there are no quick fixes, I am aware that it will take time to build up again by good money management.