Trying to improve credit score for mortgage

hannahvictoria · 11 April 2019 at 10:48AM

Ben8282 wrote: »

1. Change the address of the HSBC account to your current address. Having it registered to a different address could cause confusion or difficulties.
2. Reduce balances as best you can. The less money you owe at the time of applying for a mortgage the better.
3. There is no need to close any accounts. Presumably the loan account will close automatically when fully repaid.
4. Avoid any missed payments or other poor account conduct.

Brill, will go into branch and change the account this weekend.

When it comes to looking for the mortgages I will have paid an extra £700+ off my loan, and I'll also try to pay extra off this I think. I've never missed a payment on any of my accounts, so hopefully that side of things will be okay.

thanks for your help!

cymruchris · 11 April 2019 at 2:11PM

Did you try out the eligibility checkers on many of the comparison websites? You can put in your details - and it'll tell you the likelihood of which cards you'll get without impacting your credit file. They do a soft search instead of a hard search at the early stage. Then if you get one that says 100% guaranteed - it's worth going for it. Having a degree of credit available - but not utilised is also seen by some as a positive factor - but too many hard searches - actually applying for credit can be seen negatively. So if you've recently applied for this first card - maybe wait 2 months before applying for another.

cymruchris · 11 April 2019 at 2:12PM

I gather the mortgage people like to see long running accounts as well - so that old account you dont use - get it transferred to your current address - that'll be in your favour and won't cost you anything.