I’m 22 with a ‘very poor’ credit score. Is my life over or is it saveable?

BHwizzy

So I’m 22, from the UK, graduated from university last year and have been working since. Since the last year I have had student overdraft debt for which I’ve missed a few payments, my previous job was pretty low paid but it wouldn’t have been a problem had I properly budgeted and expressed more self control with certain things. The bank called me up and I’m now on an arrangement with them where I’m regularly paying off the debt. It’s currently at ~£1000 and I’m paying £200/month on it after which I’ve requested they close my old student account. I now have a higher paying job and am more easily able to pay off the debt, but it’s still there on my credit report. After being afraid to for so long, I’ve checked my Experian credit rating and it is disastrous. That’s the only debt I’ve had but I haven’t taken out any more credit apart from a phone contract and internet contract and they’ve always been paid off but they’re small so I’m not sure they count much. The worst thing is that I’ve been renting apartments for a year and I have ALWAYS paid the rent on time without fail but because I never registered on the electoral roll, unfortunately none of that matters, the credit bureau only knows about the bad stuff and none of the good stuff. The student account is listed as ‘delinquent’ and I don’t have much visible else going for me. I understand that this is my fault entirely, I’m not nor will I ever try to blame someone or something else for this situation I got myself into. From the looks of things, lenders would rather just throw their money into a burning dumpster fire than trust me with even a penny of it. I don’t have any defaults, CCJs, insolvencies, bankruptcies or anything of that nature but I don’t get brownie points for not being in serious legal trouble. The delinquent bank account can be paid off in 6months or less, but paying it off doesn’t make it go away, it’s going to haunt me for the rest of my life. I never plan to get any loans or start a business, don’t plan on getting a car anytime soon as I live in a decently connected city but one thing I do want in some years time is to be able to get a house but all this considered, it looks like pigs will fly before I’m ever approved for a mortgage. I tried, I tried and failed miserably to be an adult and I feel like a total failure, I really hate myself for getting myself into this situation and how my irresponsibility and immaturity have permanently screwed my life and status. I mostly needed to get this off my chest but I want to ask, is there anyway I can at least attempt to pull myself out of this hole? Is there anyway I can get my perfect rent record on the credit report? More importantly, I’m currently looking for apartments to rent in this new city and is this going to make it impossible to find somewhere to live? (I currently live with a non parental family member). Am I ever going to be able to get a phone ever again once this contracts expired?

Thank you, I hope I don’t sound too pathetic and I hope you all have a really good day!

DCFC79

Well 1 thing I will tell you is your score means nothing to lenders since only yourself can see it, lenders see your history.


Check Clearscore and Noddle for a better picture since not everyone uses Experianand not everyone will use all 3 agencies.


Things stay on your report for 6 years so its not the end nor is your life over.


Your 22 so budget properly (which your doing), no extravagent purchases, think to yourself do you want x do you really need y at price z.


Its a small amount of money so dont worry.

[Deleted User]

Nothing you've said looks too disastrous. You're young and you've got one defaulted account you're paying off.

Clear the overdraft, get on the ER then build from there. Using a credit card regularly and clearing in full each month is the best way to build a good history.

Some paragraph breaks would be good too.

gozaimasu

Deleted_User wrote: »

Some paragraph breaks would be good too.

Indeed they would. They'll give a degree to anyone these days.

BHwizzy

The problem is I don’t already have a credit card and with my credit, credit card lenders would sooner throw their money into a volcano than allow me credit. Are there any credit cards available for bad credit for the purposes of building credit?

DCFC79

BHwizzy wrote: »

The problem is I don’t already have a credit card and with my credit, credit card lenders would sooner throw their money into a volcano than allow me credit. Are there any credit cards available for bad credit for the purposes of building credit?

Aqua, Luma from Capital One are 2 options.
Might be others.

Willing2Learn

BHwizzy wrote: »

The problem is I don’t already have a credit card and with my credit, credit card lenders would sooner throw their money into a volcano than allow me credit. Are there any credit cards available for bad credit for the purposes of building credit?

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/bad-credit-credit-cards/

T-G-C

Capital One claim that they receive credit scoring from the CRAs, however this is nonsense. The data issued to them is limited to within the credit file, it would be against the law for them to submit biased scoring to a lender, which can lead to unfair refusal. To sum up this part, ignore the score that Experian and Equifax generate. It can lead to unnecessary panic.

As for the state of your credit file, there is time to fix things. The student years are the worst for blind spending on credit etc. however it isn't the end of the world. The default will expire (assuming it was generated in 2018) in 2024 and won't have a problem obtaining credit, unless you make more mistakes in these next few years, which will extend the brunt of having a bruised credit file.

I would avoid more than one subprime credit card, all mailing order accounts, all short-term loans and anything else that can lead to a spiral of debt. Until your credit file is repaired, focus on building the positive and avoiding the negative. This applies always, but more so in your situation.