how to get credit rating up?

ralph56_2

Hi Guys,

This is my first post so please be gentle!

Basically after 4 long years I have managed to finish clearing a £20,000 debt racked up due to stupidity and Studency.

My problem is this, I now have an absolutely terrible credit rating, as I have had a lot of defaults etc and ended up using a credit arbitration service to liaise on my behalf and agree a repayment plan with a number of creditors - hence the 4 years of repayment, living on the bare necessities.

Does anyone have any great ideas of getting my credit rating up?

I suspect I would not get a credit card approved - one idea was to get a credit card and use it for monthly petrol and then pay it off every month, slowly improving my rarting. However if my rating is so low i cannot get a credit card - what can i do?????

please help oh financial guru's and experts...

poppy_f1

a credit card like vanquish or barclaycard inital would be good, horrendous interest but if paid in full at the end of the month then it would help improve your credit rating as long as there is nothing else bringing it down

Crown

Hi Ralph, Have you obtained you credit reference files?

If you have managed to clear your debts any default notices that you received will come of the report at the end of 6 years so you have a couple years to go on that by the looks of things.

As already suggested it may be worth trying to obtain a credit card from one of the high interest companies BUT make sure you pay it of in full each month.

Also although I still have major debts I have recently been upgraded to a full current account with Abbey. The method I used was simply making sure that all my earnings where paid into the account so it showed a regular pattern of income and made sure that I NEVER went overdrawn.

It took around 8 Months of being a basic account holder to be eligable for the update.

Can I just ask why you want to increase your credit rating? surely you do not want to get further credit cards to get yourself back into debt?

If it is for a mortgage there are lenders out there who will give you a mortgage albeit at a higher rate but again if you can show that you havent missed payments for a period of time you again should be able to get a better deal.

From what ive read and advice from others on here there isnt a magic wand solution to fixing bad credit. Like many things in life it will improve with time.

Good luck