Mumsnet Talk

Well...OH and I thinking about going for a mortgage. We will have 10% deposit on the house. He has fab credit rating, but I have poor all credit agreements bar 1 are satisfactory, score of 716 which i assume is crap if my score is rated as poor (Experion). I have 1 missed payment on the account and am in (and about to finish this month) a debt management plan for this agreement.

How screwed am i? I hate littlewoods

Please any advice would be very, very helpful!

When did you miss the payment? When are you hoping to apply for a mortgage?

Missed the payment in July last year, which is when I set up the payment plan. Only just started looking into mortgage, so not for a good few months I wouldn't have thought?

Thank you for answering me

No worries, i have recently been through the mortgage application process myself! If the payment plan is up next month then you should see a rise in your score the following month anyway. If you are able, i would suggest waiting until 12 months have passed since the missed payment so basically, July/August this year. Are you able to do that or do you need to start the ball rolling sooner? What are the red exclamation points on your report against? It normally lists the reasons for a lower score too.

Recent missed payment, of which it says 1 and also defaulted something or other, which i assume is the credit agreement with Littlewoods that is the missed payment? Thats all there is thats wrong with it as far as I can see. I have a loan taken out in October 11, but all payments up to date, never missed one and I have a next account which is almost clear

Is it worth paying off these credit accounts ASAP, will that improve the score as well?

Thank you

Yes, score will improve as you clear your debts. Are you using credit as well? ie using it and then paying it off in full? Your score will improve if you stop using the credit that is available to you. If you go to the credit agreement section then click on the little arrow it will open up each agreement and show more detail so you can make sure that nothing erroneous is on there.

The credit I have is an account with Littlewoods and an account with Next. Next will be cleared in 2 months, with the amount I am paying Littlewoods, it will be clear in November. There isn't anything else I can see in the report that is causing any negative impact other than the Littlewoods account, as it is the only thing with a missed payment

Would it be possible to add the amount that you are currently paying Next to the amount you are paying Littlewoods once Next is paid off? This would surely reduce the length of the payment arrangement. I am sure your score will go up once 12 months have passed since the initial default as well.

Thats what I am planning to do And fingers crossed once Littlewoods is clear I will add that and pay my loan off faster too

Does it matter that we have separate bank accounts in the grand scheme of things

Hi again - thought i'd bump this rather than make something new

I had noticed a small discrepancy on my credit report (the late payment wasn't a late payment, as i was in payment arrangement, which I am now out of - hooray!) and wrote to Littlewoods - three days later my rating has gone from poor to fair not a huge thing, but massive to me!

I am also only using 31% of credit available to me - would that look good to the mortgage folk. The house we liked has gone under offer, so a little longer for things to pick up

The debt management plan is going to be the main thing holding you back in all honesty, do you use other forms of credit at present eg mobile phone contract, credit card etc? You need to try to build some positive credit history to counteract the negativity of a DMP.

Also try to close down any credit accounts that you no longer require. Using 31% of available credit isn't a good thing, it implies you could potentially triple your debts without any credit scoring needed!

I don't have any unused, and I am no longer in the debt management plan

I have a loan, phone contract both of which have no missed payments whatsoever. (Phone contract since Jan 12 and loan since Oct 11). The 31% is a massive amount that Littlewoods would be willing for me to spend, 6 times what i currently owe! Would asking for that to be lowered do any good? I haven't ordered anything from them in about 11mths and don't plan to