Debt

[user1489870574]

Has anyone ever left credit cards say over a year or whatever and then been able to pay them off? Wondering if it can redeem your credit score, thanks

You can redeem your score but if you have any defaults from banks or CCJs it will take 6 years.

Bump

You can always redeem your credit score but I suppose it depends on how committed you are. Have a google of Dave Ramsey. He talks about getting out of debt and into financial independence.

As Fern said, a CCJ will remain on your credit file for 6 years but even then you can get it "marked as satisfied" of you've paid it off which should improve your score.

When you say ‘left’ them over a year, what exactly do you mean?

What’s your debt situation now?

But it is too far gone or can you get a good credit score again once I start paying, it's just been left..

It can improve over a period of time on e you have started paying off all debt and then using it occasionally. However once you are debt free, why would you want a good credit score? You would not be wanting to take out debt again. You may be wanting a mortgage but that is based on affordability and credit history, not credit score. All lenders have their own criteria, the credit scores you get shown online from the credit reference agencies are made up... they don't exist. They are a marketing tool to push other products, mainly debt! Credit history is important, you need to show that you can repay debt and then be responsible about using debt.

A CCJ would be on file for 6 years, so don't expect to take out any form of debt whilst that exists. If something has not yet got to that stage, be aggressive about paying it off so it does not become a defaulted debt.

As nannynick says you can improve your credit score by paying it off, of course. But it takes 6 years for the CCJ (the court judgement the credit company will have filed for non-payment) to drop off your credit file.

If you keep ignoring it, though, eventually the debt will get passed by the credit card company to debt collectors. They’ll add charges and high interest and are usually not very nice to deal with. So you should start getting it sorted as soon as you can, even if you can’t pay much.

Do you know what you owe?