Changes to my credit score

BenjaniLauLau

Hello all and thank you in advance for your Help.

I have always been very conscious of my credit footprint and have looked to make it as good as it can be from a young age.

In November 2015 On "clearscore" my credit rating was looking great, 500/700, I had two largely unused credit cards, had been with my current account for most of my adult life and a completely clean bill of credit health.

So what changed,

• I changed address a couple of times, my bank account details and my electoral address didn't always align
• I bought a sofa on credit
• I cancelled both credit cards as I didn't want to be seen with £4K of unused and available credit
• I changed my current account (hsbc let me down one too many times)
• I moved into my first house and set up many bills etc.

During this time, I never defaulted on any payments, so I expected my credit rating to be largely unaffected.

I understand better now why my credit rating has fallen to 300/700.. I am massively dissapointed but it's done now.

What can I do to get myself back into a good position? I will be looking for my first mortgage in 18 months maybe sooner, and need to know how I can repair the damage I self inflicted on my credit score.

It's disappointing that ultimately, I have never missed a bill, failed a payment etc but all the hard work and rating I built up has evaporated!

I know there will be no quick fix, but I wonder if you guys can give me some advice on how you got out of similar situations and any tips you learnt on the way.

Cheers guys and girls.

[Deleted User]

No problem. Your score is meaningless. Ignore it.

All that matters is the data on your files.

mwarby

BenjaniLauLau wrote: »

So what changed,

• I changed address a couple of times, my bank account details and my electoral address didn't always align
• I bought a sofa on credit
• I cancelled both credit cards as I didn't want to be seen with £4K of unused and available credit
• I changed my current account (hsbc let me down one too many times)
• I moved into my first house and set up many bills etc.

so going through one by one

changes of address can hint at instability in other areas and will have an impact. Eg in my case i moved for work, which involves a certain amount of risk

You've taken out a essentially an unsecured loan

You've closed credit accounts, this combined with loan will have upped your utilisation, it has also probably dragged down your average account age. This will all make you look less stable

again with current account less time with bank. Almost certainly involved a credit check. if you have an overdraft (unused or not) there will be a period where you have 2 overdrafts

so a bunch more credit checks, and new accounts will be showing


Now none of this is really bad, but you've had a big set of financial changes, which will impact how creditors see you. Given a few months the impact will drop and the new accounts will start to have a positive impact, assuming they are paid on time etc