Credit utilisation

Nick_Farrow

Hi

I've joined the Credit Club and got my Experian Credit Score, which was just shy of 999. Under the section "8 things you need to know about your credit file" all my items have smiley green faces except "Credit utilisation" which has an orange not happy/not sad face. As I understand it, credit utilisation is how much of the credit you have access to that you are using. What I don't get is that I really don't have any credit cards or loans etc so how is this score mediocre? I have a mortgage, a mobile phone and I pay my car insurance monthly, but apart from that the only other credit I have is for a mail order catalogue which has a limit of £5000, but I only have a balance of £350. Could this score be low because I don't have much in the way of credit? I'm considering applying for a loan to buy a new car and i want to make sure a) that I get approved and b) that I get the best rate I can but I'm concerned this will affect my chances.

Cheers
N

sheff6107

It's completely meaningless and arbitrary, as is the 999 number.

Nobody you are applying to for credit will see any of the marketing gumpf you see on an Experian report.

All you can do is not have any defaults, CCJs or missed payments and have a report that shows you have had credit in the past and have paid it back.

You can have a 'perfect' credit report and you can still be turned down because you aren't going to be profitable or have never borrowed enough or have not borrowed anything for years.

Just make sure you have nothing bad on your report. That's all you really need to do.