Best cards for building credit rating

markhunter

I have worked abroad for about 8-9 months each year for the last 11 years. As a result I had no accounts or credit history or anything in UK.

I moved back to UK in December. In February I opened a Yorkshire Bank current account and was given a maestro card. Last month they gave me a £500 overdraft. Around that time I also got a Capital One Classic card (only £100 limit) and a mobile phone contract.

I'm looking to strengthen/build my credit rating as much as possible quickly, Monument dont seem to be accepting application atm, so I applied for a Barclaycard Initial card. Can anyone suggest any other accounts I could open that may help me on my way. I earn good money and would like to think about getting a mortgage in about 12 months time so obviously I wanna be in a position to get the best rate possible when the time comes.

Thanks

YorkshireBoy

What about a YB credit card?

I assume you're on the Electoral Roll?

I'm often intrigued when people want to open up many, many, credit facilities in order to 'bolster' their credit ratings. Surely a couple of cards, an overdraft facility, and a mobile phone will suffice?

markhunter

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

What about a YB credit card?

I assume you're on the Electoral Roll?

I'm often intrigued when people want to open up many, many, credit facilities in order to 'bolster' their credit ratings. Surely a couple of cards, an overdraft facility, and a mobile phone will suffice?

I sent off the form for the electoral roll in feb but it turns out the council never recieved it. I sent another one last month, I called them up a few weeks back, I go on the register on July 2nd.

I dont want many many credit facilities, I just wanna get my rating as good as possible in the next 12 months. Im a taxi driver so if Im ever short of cash I can just work longer hours so paying back the credits no an issue at all.

YorkshireBoy

Since YB clearly value you, I'd wait until mid-July, order my credit reports from Experian & Equifax to check ER information has been updated, and then approach them for a card.

evanprice

Hi
Hope someone is able to help me out - I've just immigrated to the UK 3 months ago with my partner - we both have British passports and are working as Engineers with a combined income of about 61k pa.
We want to buy a place in about a year's time, providing the housing market is a suitable shape to do so, and should have saved enough for a 10% deposit on a 160k-180k place.
Obviously our credit records are pretty much blank at the moment, how would we go about getting a decent credit rating which i assume is rather useful when applying for a mortgage?
We are getting on the voter's roll and are paying our phone, mobile, sky,broadband and council tax accounts on time. Should we apply for crap rate credit cards and spend and pay those off timeously as well, anything else we can do?
thanks
cheers
evan

PROLIANT

Hi evan, you could try a sub prime lender like Capital one or Vanquis, have a read on a thread that is dedicated to sub prime lending; http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=922297 there is lots of useful info on there that may help you out.