Improving credit score before mortgage application

martin4

My partner and I plan on purchasing a first house in September (or, at least, we plan on purchasing a house and our rental agreement expires in September). We are not married, and it will be a joint purchase.


I have been following the steps to improve my credit score before applying for a mortgage in principle, but my partner has checked Experian and Equifax and neither can find her.


This is likely because she has no credit record. She has never owned a credit card or needed a loan, is a European national and so is not on the Electoral register, all of the household bills are in my name, and the rent is paid from my account.


Will this have a large negative effect on the mortgage application process? The MSE guide to improving the credit score includes things like acquiring a "bad" credit card which we could easily repay, but also says that applying for credit a few months before applying for a mortgage is a big no-no.


We do share a joint debit account but it has no credit facility, and I am worried that it would impact my score if we apply for one just to get her a record.

I may be able to add her as an authorized user on my credit card account which may boost her score a little, although neither of us have any need for credit and I stopped using this card perhaps two years ago. Since then my credit score seems to have dropped from almost maximum to ~750, so I'm unsure if the history of this card would help her in any way. I've recently started using it to try and claw back some points for being a responsible credit user.


We have signed up to the Rental Exchange Initiative such that rent payments count towards credit score, but since the payment is from my account this won't affect her score. Is there any benefit to switching payments to be from the joint account?



Even if she did apply for a credit builder card, the application for a mortgage in principle will be quite soon. Would there be enough time to build up much of a record? Is a bad record worse than no record?


Thanks a lot!

[Deleted User]

Your credit score isn't a real thing so can be safely ignored. It's provided solely for entertainment purposes and not seen or used by lenders.

Getting a credit card and using it properly is the easiest way to build up some credit history, which is always a good thing.

chanz4

Authorised user will do nothing, if you trust get a joint bank account that will help more

MovingForwards

Does she not have a bank account or a mobile phone contract?

Can you not add her to the gas / electric bills?

martin4

None of the utility bills appear on my Experian report - AFAUI they will only appear there if payment is in arrears.


I have an old Virgin Media bill currently showing on the report in good standing - I don't know why that's there any all of my subsequent bills are not.


Would adding her to the bills change anything if they don't currently show up on my report, except possible worsen her score if we miss a payment?


We have a joint bank account but it has no credit facility because we do not need it. It is a Monzo account and they only just started reporting to Experian (I'm not allowed to post links yet, but they announced this very recently).


She has a bank account and a mobile phone contract but the account has no credit facility and Three mobile doesn't show up on Experian reports (at least, it doesn't on mine).

MovingForwards

There are three main credit reference agencies (four including a rarely used one), the three can be accessed via:
Credit karma
Clearscore
MSE credit club

All the above are free.

My gas / electric are showing (British Gas), my mobile is also showing (Three mobile).

Ignore the credit score shown by the CRAs as it isn't seen or used by financial institutions as they have their own way of credit scoring using internal algorithm.