Failed Mortage Credit Check - Help

jamesff1

Hi, my partner and I have just been turned down for the Post Office mortgage (Bristol and West). They have advised that our credit score is to low.
My score is 698 and my partner's is 995

I have a few questions that I hope you can help with, please post even if you can only answer a few...

1. Is there any way we can challenge this, we have a combinbed income of 50k / year and do not have any other credit commitments

2. How long does it take to improve your credit rating by about 150 points?

3. This is obviously a problem with my credit score, how do I start to increase this? What cedit cards / store cards should I be applying for to help improve my rating?

4. By doing this search this has knocked my credit score down to 649 - is there any way that I can get this search removed?

Anyone's help with this will be greatly appreciated

Conrad

You've given a snap shot, but credit scores are affected by many inputs, for example people who move home a lot will be scored lower as will those not long in thier occupation or those in areas where the population have higher adverse credit statistics.

No one can say which credit cards you should apply for. Any will do as long as they are'nt from high risk poor credit providers (you will know this by the high rates charged and the marketing thrust).

B & West wont change thier decision so a challenge is pointless. They can afford to be fussy as they are one of the lenders inundated with new business.

HOW LONG? Impossible question again, as long as it takes is all I can say and assuming you dont undermine your score by changing jobs / property.
Lenders need to see you can manage credit comittments over a period of time, a year at least I would think.

OTHER LENDERS;
B & W are particularly exacting when it comes to scoring.

Lenders that dont rely as heavily on scoring are;

IPSWICH BS
N & P BS
LAMBETH BS (not sure if they still exist)
NOTTINGHAM BS
KENSINGTON
CAPITAL HOME LOANS
MARKET HARBOROUGH BS
CHESHAM BS
NEWCASTLE BS
SCOTTISH WIDOWS BANK