Repairing credit rating

firstascent

Hi
Until recently Ive had very high credit card utilisation and thus a low score.
Ive now been in a position where I can start paying all of this off gradually. I havent missed any payments in last 6 years, no defaults or iva, bankruptcy. Im monitoring my credit score on clearscore like a hawk. My score at the end of last year was 278, then up to 324 now its at 348. I have paid off around £6k debt this year already in line with this, so now at 60% total utilisation (as opposed to 80+ not so long ago). Estimating to be debt clear totally in 12-18 months, paying off c. £1k a month. Im presuming with no negative factors showing on my report, my credit score will just naturally go up and up as I pay off more debt? Or is there a historical impact that you 'used to have' high utilisation so it still is a 6 year wait similar to if you have had defaults?
Any help/ advice much appreciated
Kind regards

DCFC79

firstascent wrote: »

Hi
Until recently Ive had very high credit card utilisation and thus a low score.
Ive now been in a position where I can start paying all of this off gradually. I havent missed any payments in last 6 years, no defaults or iva, bankruptcy. Im monitoring my credit score on clearscore like a hawk. My score at the end of last year was 278, then up to 324 now its at 348. I have paid off around £6k debt this year already in line with this, so now at 60% total utilisation (as opposed to 80+ not so long ago). Estimating to be debt clear totally in 12-18 months, paying off c. £1k a month. Im presuming with no negative factors showing on my report, my credit score will just naturally go up and up as I pay off more debt? Or is there a historical impact that you 'used to have' high utilisation so it still is a 6 year wait similar to if you have had defaults?
Any help/ advice much appreciated
Kind regards

If you want to worry about your score there are 2 other agencies who rate on a different scale.

Dont worry about repairing your score ?
Only you can see it, focus on your history which is what lenders etc can see.

[Deleted User]

Maybe.

But if the wind changes direction it may go down.

Ignore the scores and ratings as no lender sees them and focus on the history and data on your files.

[Deleted User]

firstascent wrote: »

Im presuming with no negative factors showing on my report, my credit score will just naturally go up and up as I pay off more debt?

No. It will drop when you clear the debt as it's a significant change, hence its uselessness.

Continue to clear the debt, but also give thought to building good history via sensible use of a credit card. Clear in full each month.

Make sure everything else on your three files is in order.

Superhoopza

Unfortunately none of the three posts above helped actually answer the question of "does having high credit utilisation in the past damage your credit history for a long period or will lenders only look at your current situation when running a report. If they look at historic data then for how long, is it up to 6 years like defaults ." Instead people just saw the word credit score and jumped on the OP like a leech. Sure educate people the uselessness of the "score" but at least attempt to answer the question.

[Deleted User]

Sorry - please, go ahead and provide the answer

Superhoopza

I'm interested in the answer as I'm in a similar situation actually.

[Deleted User]

Lenders will see 6 years of data from your reports.

So they can see credit balance and limits.

Thusly working out utilisation.

[Deleted User]

The answer is that all lenders are different.

The more prime the lender, the more critical they will be of older history.

A lender who operates in a higher risk environment will be more forgiving.