Poor rating and going forward

geminikelli14

Hi all
I have a very poor credit score/rating and would not be accepted by anyone for credit.
i have 3 ccj's -
2 drop off in 2020
1 drops off in 2018
all 3 are being paid back and will be paid just before drop off dates.

Credit agreements I have one defaulted account from 2012 which is nearly paid back.

The debt has all risen from a bad period in my life - domestic violence I am not shirking the responsibility to pay these off and am sticking to all agreed payment plans.

What I want to know if how do I move forward to improve my rating, I understand that I wont get any credit before 2020 but once my file is clean I do want to start looking at getting a mortgage and am saving for a deposit.

I assume in 2020 once clean my score will still be very low and basically wont have any credit history other then a mobile phone contract.
Electoral role is up to date.

any advice how to make any improvements however small before then or should I just wait until 2020 and then start to build some history.

Thank you

Candyapple

I'd probably wait until the one drops off in 2018 so you only have 2 CCJs left and then apply for a credit builder card like Cap One or Aqua etc and then make sure you set up a direct debit and just make small spends on it like petrol or weekly shop and set the DD up to CLEAR THE BALANCE IN FULL. Keep that up until 2020 and when the other 2 CCJs have fallen off, try and apply for a more mainstream card with say your bank.

So by 2020 you should have history of your bank account, phone contract and 1 credit card being managed correctly.

DCFC79

Remember the score isn't what lenders see, they see the history and thats it.

geminikelli14

As it only history they want to see.. realistically how much history would i need for a mortgage 3 years minimum of a good history or more?

i dont want to go overboard so it looks like i have lots of debt so was thinking just a credit card of some sort, no defaults or old accounts.

DCFC79

geminikelli14 wrote: »

As it only history they want to see.. realistically how much history would i need for a mortgage 3 years minimum of a good history or more?

i dont want to go overboard so it looks like i have lots of debt so was thinking just a credit card of some sort, no defaults or old accounts.

Not sure, the longer the better. Get a credit card and use it but pay it off in full, even if you only get a small limit eg £200 is fine.

dm19

Why not try and apply for a credit card now? If you get it, you will have an extra year to build up credit history. If they say no, you wait a year for the ccj to drop off, and then the credit search will be gone anyway as it has been 12months. Unless you need other credit this year...

geminikelli14

Im in a financial position that i do not need credit and after the horrendous time of getting into debt i don't really ever want to have it again but i know i will need some form of credit to enable me getting a mortgage although a very small mortgage as will be providing half if not more in deposit form.

i will have a look around to see if i can find anything worth applying for now, i doubt id get anything if im honest with the 3 ccjs but i suppose it wont hurt to get knocked back it cant make my file any worse then it is now!