Credit scoring

mcrfan

Does anyone know how long it will take for a few payment "mishaps" to no longer affect your credit score? Will it ever happen?!
I had problems with going over my overdraft limit in December and I had a late payment on a credit card this month, so any idea when/if I will be able to start applying for more credit?

I desp need a new credit card to swap my virgin balance over as with the interest and min payment hike it's going to be a struggle to pay and it will wreck my budget!!
Even if it is one of the cards for people with low credit scores as their highest rate is 29% which is still lower than my virgin 34.9%!!! Would I still get one of those with my problems??

I want to check my credit report with Experian as I've read on Martin's article, just wondering if anyone has any experience of this? Just a bit concerned about doing the free trial - if you cancel do you definitely not get charged??

fermi

On Experian:

The credit account information belongs to the lenders who store the information with the credit reference agencies. Credit reference agencies cannot change these details without the particular lender’s permission. Each month, lenders update the credit account information they store with us.

What do the status codes mean?

Every credit account includes a list of ‘status codes’. These show whether you have made your credit repayments on time, over the past three years (36 months). The last 12 months’ payments are shown in full (the most recent is shown first). Underneath the status codes is a summary of payments, unless the status code shown is 8 (which is a default). The summaries of ‘number of status 1-2’ and ‘number of status 3+’ show how many times payments have been late (by up to three months or more than three months) within the last 36 months (or since the account was opened).

But each lender can score you according to their own criteria, so it's not possible to say with any certainty how these would effect each potential creditor's scoring/decisions.