building a credit rating

98jdougl

Tried to get out a credit card (with a really bad apr) with the view of spending a little bit on it each month and paying in full but have been rejected and don't want to have thousands of applications on credit file- any ideas?

Carpet belly- wasn't wanting to chase these up because he was going through a really bad time, still is etc and I was in a position to pay them off but he has taken care of it for me, without asking- only knew once I had my credit report and they weren't there anymore- just that I owed £0 and had been closed, or something like that (with a ilttle green ok circle!)

carpetbelly

Well, what did the rejection letter say? Some of them will be worded differently. If you haven't passed the credit score they'll generally send you a letter saying 'no thanks for your customer, go check your credit file'.

If you've only just failed their credit scoring or didnt pass for another reason sometimes they'll add an address you can write to if you want to appeal the decision. Might be worth double checking that letter first and seeing what it is.

If it's a failed credit score then I think all you can do is just give it time to be honest. Carry on making payments to whatever you need. Double check your credit file, I'd personally say experian is the main one you need to check as they're the big one and the one a lot of banks use. Once you get your credit file you could even PM me and I can try to talk you through it if you like.

98jdougl

I think it's just a case of me not showing up on the electoral register yet- recently moved house, only had my jobs a couple of months etc.
Have one default on one of them but am appealing this (there was another thread about thias) because I was under the impression everything was sorted and no default was issued.

carpetbelly

The electrol roll isn't that big a deal to be honest. It's used a lot for verifying who someone is when applying but if you're not on there any company will just ask for ID.

The default would be the show stopper when applying for anything. I'd say get that sorted then if you think you have a valid appeal and then recheck your credit file. I had similar with vodafone putting a default on my file when it was their !!!! up and they said they'd taken it off. And still to this day (over a year) I'm chasing for them to do it.

98jdougl

Really? everyone else I've spoken to has said that the electoral roll has a huge impact on the score!

carpetbelly

Really... A lot of people aren't that fussed anymore about voting and being on the electoral roll.

My job is partially sorting out how people are credit scored and I can tell you I've worked for a couple of banks in my time and none of them use that as a scoring criteria. It's generally for address checking only.

Now, some financial institutions buy a score directly from the credit companies and whether they use that as an indicator is another matter but you can probably assume that if the big banks don't use it as a scoring criteria then the credit bureaus probably won't either.

I'm on the voters roll where I am but my fianc! doesn't want to be. I enjoy my right to vote, my fianc! believe's it's a waste of time, which I can fully understand. Also, the list only updates once or twice a year at most I believe generally so again, cannot be fully relied on.

The most important things on a credit file is regular, on time payments and not being over indebted. Anything else will be negative. The value of the payments are neither here nor there, as long as they're ontime. This is how you build up a good rating over time.

98jdougl

Would the fact that I have a default have less impact after say 3 years if I continue with a good payment record etc?
I know it takes 6 years to drop off completely but over time will the fact I have it still be as much of a 'blackmark' against me?

carpetbelly

Different companies treat them differently but from experience companies are being a bit more savvy and thinking that satisfied defaults from years ago are better than a default that was recent.

Saying a default is a blackmark is still something I would personally think of one as. A lot of companies don't like them and would rarely lend to them. I'd just sit it out and keep paying on time.

Too many applications in the space of 6months/1yr doesn't look good either.

Tori_Bellatrix

carpetbelly wrote: »

Really... A lot of people aren't that fussed anymore about voting and being on the electoral roll.

My job is partially sorting out how people are credit scored and I can tell you I've worked for a couple of banks in my time and none of them use that as a scoring criteria. It's generally for address checking only.

Now, some financial institutions buy a score directly from the credit companies and whether they use that as an indicator is another matter but you can probably assume that if the big banks don't use it as a scoring criteria then the credit bureaus probably won't either.

I'm on the voters roll where I am but my fianc! doesn't want to be. I enjoy my right to vote, my fianc! believe's it's a waste of time, which I can fully understand. Also, the list only updates once or twice a year at most I believe generally so again, cannot be fully relied on.

The most important things on a credit file is regular, on time payments and not being over indebted. Anything else will be negative. The value of the payments are neither here nor there, as long as they're ontime. This is how you build up a good rating over time.

Most Local Authorities update the electoral roll monthly on what is called the 'rolling register'. The exception to this is when the local canvass takes place in Sep/Oct time. In this case it all gets updated on Dec 1st when the new registers are published.

bathgatebuyer

The Halifax sent information about a default on my current account to credit agencies despite there being an ongoing dispute between us over bank charges which had, at that time, progressed to the County Court stage. At the same time - as a result of my charges claim against them - I was looking for another bank account. The day before the default went on my record, I made a few calls and had no problems being considered for one. The day it went onto my file, I wasn't even considered suitable for a basic switch account.

Fortunately I managed to get them to contact the CRAs and remove the default as it was issued in error, but from looking at my own credit record, the definition of a default is that the relationship between the customer and the lender has completely broken down.While not as bad as a CCJ, it's impacts are immediate and fairly lengthy in term.

If you can get it removed, then your score will be much much better without it.