Need some help

DarrenW80

Hi everyone
I have 3 credit cards and loan and these are Capital One (£1950 limit) Vanquis (£500 limit) and Marbles (£900 limit), the Vanquis and Marbles have nothing on them and the Capital One has £600 on which I can pay off in 2 months time. I also have a loan with Likely Loans which has 6 payments left to go. My credit reports are all up to date, no missed payments on anything, no CCJ''s and no bankruptcy but my credit scores are very low. I cannot understand why my scores are low or poor, I think I have been back on the electrol about a year or just over. I am also disabled and on benfits but I live with my parents so apart from my house keep I have over £800 a month to myself. Anyway I am not really looking for any credit as such but a better credit card would be nice with a lower APR but everything says not eligable apart from Tesco which has a 30% chance. What I would like to know is, what's the best way to use the cards I have so that my credit reports improve? I have had the Capital one card for a year and a half and the Vanquis and Marbles I have had for about 3 or 4 months. Do I have to use all 3 credit cards every month? How do I build my credit reports up?

CLAPTON

DarrenW80 wrote: »

Hi everyone
I have 3 credit cards and loan and these are Capital One (£1950 limit) Vanquis (£500 limit) and Marbles (£900 limit), the Vanquis and Marbles have nothing on them and the Capital One has £600 on which I can pay off in 2 months time. I also have a loan with Likely Loans which has 6 payments left to go. My credit reports are all up to date, no missed payments on anything, no CCJ''s and no bankruptcy but my credit scores are very low. I cannot understand why my scores are low or poor, I think I have been back on the electrol about a year or just over. I am also disabled and on benfits but I live with my parents so apart from my house keep I have over £800 a month to myself. Anyway I am not really looking for any credit as such but a better credit card would be nice with a lower APR but everything says not eligable apart from Tesco which has a 30% chance. What I would like to know is, what's the best way to use the cards I have so that my credit reports improve? I have had the Capital one card for a year and a half and the Vanquis and Marbles I have had for about 3 or 4 months. Do I have to use all 3 credit cards every month? How do I build my credit reports up?

with 800 per month to yourself , why are you in any debt?

anyway, probably the reason why the difficulty in getting a good card is lack of a job,

Ebe_Scrooge

First off, ignore your score. Only you and the CRA sees it, lenders don't. What lenders look at is your credit history.


Each lender has their own criteria, but the general things they look for are :


1. Being on the electoral roll.
2. Not having too much credit in comparison to your income ( affordability ).
3. A history of responsible borrowing and repayment.


In order to improve your history, the easiest thing is to put everyday spending on your card, and repay in full, on time, every month.


The loan will also go some way towards building a good history, again assuming you pay on time every month.


In an ideal world, the APR on a card is irrelevant, as you'll be paying it off in full every month, so no interest to pay.


So, in answer to your question - the best thing you can do is make sure you pay the loan repayments on time, pay off the Capital One card as soon as you possibly can, then use it regularly and repay in full every month. After about 6 months or so of doing this, try applying again to one of the "better" cards, your credit history will then look a lot healthier.

[Deleted User]

Use at least two, clear in full month.

Cleat the loan or card first, depending on which is the highest rate. Then clear the other.

Ignore your scores.

DarrenW80

CLAPTON wrote: »

with 800 per month to yourself , why are you in any debt?

anyway, probably the reason why the difficulty in getting a good card is lack of a job,

I am not in debt in a way, I choose to put myself in debt to improve my credit reports, but it don't seem to be working. I had the loan to pay for a new PC, I could of bought it cash but wanted some credit history and can afford all the repayments. At the time Likely Loans were the only loan company that would offer me a loan without a guarantor. Same with the Capital One card, I racked up £600 on it but I don't need to, I was going to pay £300 this month off it and £300 next month but I am now reading it's best to pay in full.

MallyGirl

no need to incur interest just to build up a credit history. If you have the money to repay the loan then do so. Pay the credit card off then put some transactions through every month and have a direct debit set up to pay in full. That is the best plan.

MrsTinks

If your sole source of income is benefits then this may well affect some lenders would potentially not considering your applications from what I understand.
I don't believe it should affect the "credit score" as the agencies do not know your income or income source.

Either you simply need to give your file some time to build up a good history - have you got any negative markers on any of your files? They should also have a section which gives you reasons for why they think your score is lower - yes we can argue that it's a fictional score and to a point it is - but a severely low score can be an indication for you that there may be something which a lender will be cautious of...

[Deleted User]

DarrenW80 wrote: »

I am not in debt in a way, I choose to put myself in debt to improve my credit reports,

People who carry debt (apart from at 0%) look like people who don't have any disposable income. It's not a good look to go for.

DarrenW80

MrsTinks wrote: »

If your sole source of income is benefits then this may well affect some lenders would potentially not considering your applications from what I understand.
I don't believe it should affect the "credit score" as the agencies do not know your income or income source.

Either you simply need to give your file some time to build up a good history - have you got any negative markers on any of your files? They should also have a section which gives you reasons for why they think your score is lower - yes we can argue that it's a fictional score and to a point it is - but a severely low score can be an indication for you that there may be something which a lender will be cautious of...

I checked my reports yesterday and looked at everything and every closed and open file has a green tick each month on everything. When I look at the negative factors it says that I have made a lot of applications for credit which was due to opening my Vanquis and Marbles cards I think.

DarrenW80

Deleted_User wrote: »

People who carry debt (apart from at 0%) look like people who don't have any disposable income. It's not a good look to go for.

Ok thank you I will bear this in mind.

DarrenW80

Thanks for all the reply's on this.

One last thing, you say about paying the cards in full each month via a direct debit but does it have to be a direct debit? Can I pay in full using a bank transfer or via my online account? Will not paying by direct debit impact my reports?