HOW DO I IMPROVE MY CREDIT SCORE?

Even if your credit rating is good it makes sense to get and keep your score as high as possible. Continuous monitoring and management of your credit reports at each Credit Reference Agency is essential if you want to be successful in this task and ensure that your ability to get more credit is always at its best.

Why was my Application Refused?

Lenders are very sensitive about their points scoring systems and are unlikely to reveal the details of why your credit application was turned down.

However many will provide a more general idea of why your credit score wasn’t good enough and they should also tell you the name of the Reference Agency they used. Once you understand this reason examine the relevant credit report again and try to work out what you can do to fix the problem.

Lenders may consider you to be already suffering financially if you already have several other loans and/or credit cards or have just made a lot of applications at about the same time. In this case these facts are likely to lower your credit rating.

On the other hand if you own your home, had the same job for some time or have lived at the same address for a while then your credit rating will be good, as it suggest to a lender that you have a stable life style and that you will probably be able to repay your debts.

Fill Out your Application Forms correctly.

If you don’t then incorrect or missing information may reduce your potential to get credit.

Repeated Applications?

Don’t do this after an application has failed. Find out why you were declined and try to fix the problem before starting again. Repeatedly applying for credit and being continually turned down will reflect very badly on your credit rating. Each individual application will be recorded on your credit file and lenders are very wary of high numbers of applications in a short period of time.

This is a very important point and one that many people are simply just not aware of.

Credit Search or Quotation Search?

When looking around for a good deal, make sure that you just ask for a quote from your lender.

Normally, to give you a quote they should not have to access your credit report and should only need to do a credit check when you actually make a credit application.

However in some circumstances the lender may need to calculate your credit score in order to give you an accurate quote and they will need to search your credit report to do this. In this case the lender should make a Quotation search of your report and not a Credit search.

This will ensure that in the future any lender who searches your report will recognise that these searches were not for credit applications, but merely for quotations. Submitting several applications to different lenders over a short period of time would normally cause a new lender to be suspicious of your activities, but if there were several quotations this would not be the case.

Not on the Electoral Roll?

Contact your Local Authority and ask them to add your name to the Electoral Roll. The Local Authority should then notify the Credit Reference Agencies and your Credit Report should be updated accordingly within another 28 days.

Short Credit History?

A long credit history is generally considered more advantageous than a short one. If you have no credit history then you may find it difficult to get credit for the first time. However do not be put off applying as many other factors may overcome this, such a good job prospects or good salary.

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