The most important criteria for lenders?

enthusiasticsaver

You want a home improvement loan for a house you don’t own? I assumed you were mortgage free but yes if the house isn’t yours that will be a red flag to a lender. 

floppydisk1

MSR01 said:

Thanks, all, for your replies. Unfortunately, they've left me even more stumped! I have no current outstanding debts (seems unlikely, I know, but I cleared them in the last couple of years.) It helps not having a mortgage, of course... rare that this can be a help! I share a house with friends and family, and pay into that. We've all been here for years, so very stable. I've never missed a payment when repaying loans. I went overdrawn by a few quid once in the last three years. My credit score has been as high as 996! It dropped to 994 after I asked my bank about my eligibility.

Hang on, does that mean they don't trust it? Is it unrealistically high?

So, being self-employed and having an unbelievable credit score? Kiss of death?

Credit SCORE  number means nothing and lenders in fact don't even see it, it's more or less generated by credit reference agencies for your own entertainment . On the other hand , credit HISTORY does matter a lot and yours might be quite thin, with no recent mortgage or  few lending agreements ( loans or any other credit agreements ), home improvement for the property you do not own  counts against you and self employment counts against you too  ( rightly or wrongly ) .  It is nothing personal , credit is becoming harder to come by and lenders see more negatives than positives in your credit file so their answer is - computer said no