Tips on how to improve your credit rating
- Set up direct debits and pay your bills on time, even a late payment can show up as a missed one
- Pay off credit card debt regularly at more than the minimum payment. Ensure you keep the balance lower than your available limit (under 75%)
- If you have long term revolving credit (store cards, credit cards, etc) and can’t afford to make more than the minimum payment, ensure you have transferred it to a 0% deal where possible
- Only apply for new credit accounts as needed, as these can reduce your score significantly for a short period of time
- Close unused credit cards, as this reduces your available credit, making you more appealing to lenders
- Register for the electoral role improves your score
- Stay clear of payday loans / short term finance, lenders view this as inability to manage your normal day to day spending
- Be an active borrower but pay it off!
If you don’t have a credit card it may be beneficially to get one and spend then clear your balance every month. You should clear this within a 30 day period to avoid paying any interest this will help prove to lenders you can borrow and repay credit.
Credit Reports/Searches
In order to establish if a lender would consider your application, we will need to see a credit report.
Every lender is different in who they use to reference an application.
As the agencies don’t always share their information, they are often different, and it can be that you are declined because of something on a report you don’t know about.
To stop multiple searches we always request you provide us with a credit report initial so we don’t complete a search with the lenders until we know if it possible.