Improving my credit rating

murphyjf

So I logged into experian and I have a credit rating of 438 IE very poor. I have 3 defaults and 1 ccj all down to an ex who spent all our money :-(

So I'm wondering how to improve my credit rating? Is it worth paying off the defaults? I'm reading mixed reviews that it won't actually remove them just zero them my total default is 2450.

I know it's going to be a long process I just don't want to be doing pointless things which will make me financially worse off but not improve my score.

Arleen

Score is imaginary and depends more on weather than anything else so ignore it. Additionally only you can see it, not the lenders - they only see your credit file.

If you owe the money then you should pay it back. You can go and speak with the lenders and figure out a fair payment plan, maybe freeze of interest and other things to help you out, as in the end they mostly care about getting paid and collections are expensive. Doing so will mark those defaults and CCJs as settled which will look marginally better, but your history will not look good till they drop out from credit history (which will be up to 6 years).

Beside that the best thing to do would be to start building good history, so once they drop everything will be squeaky clean. So make sure that everything is paid on time (credit cards, overdrafts, bills etc), that you don't take out any payday loans and so on.

Also keep in mind that every single default has 6 years to be converted into a CCJ (at least, if you've ever made any payments on it or acknowledged the debt at some point then it will not expire after 6 years), so all those defaults are just time bombs waiting to explode and dig even deeper (and longer) hole in your credit history.

Christine798

I am struggling with my credit rating as well.
Do you have a current account with this score may I ask please?

Because my previous bank closed my current account, and other banks refused to open me one since then. TT_TT

mwarby

Christine798 wrote: »

I am struggling with my credit rating as well.
Do you have a current account with this score may I ask please?

Because my previous bank closed my current account, and other banks refused to open me one since then. TT_TT

If you are struggling to open any bank account at all (including basic), its worth checking your reports don't have any CIFAS markers