Improving Credit Score for Mortgage

[fizzoclock]

We are hoping to buy in the next 12 months so I have checked my credit score to make sure it's good. It is 'good' (891) but I am wondering if I can make it 'excellent'. The report says the plus points are that I haven't applied for credit recently and have held my accounts for a long time (5yrs+). The negative is that I haven't had any successfully completed credit accounts. that's because I am very risk averse and don't take anything on credit/don't have a credit card.
I am wondering if I should take out a credit card and repay every month to cancel this negative out, but then won't that also cancel my positives...that I haven't applied for credit recently and only have longstanding accounts?
Is a score of 891 good enough or could an excellent score really help? We will be looking at a hight LTV possibly 95% which I know are harder to get than the average mortgage.....
Any advice?

Getting a credit card and using it lightly (and paying it in full every month) will give you a higher credit score. The problem that you have is that at the moment a lender doesn't have any evidence that you will make repayments on time, so proving this would have more of an impact. Applying for a limited amount of credit will not have a negative impact on your score, only if you are applying for lots of credit accounts in a short space of time :)

Yes get a credit card and repay in full every month by DD so you can't miss at all - a missed payment would be worse than not having a credit card.

Don't bother applying for one of the 'top' credit cards, with low interest rates etc - you are more likely to be turned down for one of those and you don't care what the interest rate is because you aren't going to be paying any, are you :)

Other good things to do: get yourself on the electoral roll. Have a land line.

What about your OH - have they also goot a good - excellent record?

Thanks for the advice. I will look into credit cards then and definitely do the direct debit to make sure it's paid.

I'm not on the electoral roll yet. I know that's a bit stupid. That passed me by so guessing getting that sorted will have a positive impact on the score too. We do have a landline.

I need to get OH to do the check too. I am almost certain he will be the same as me as our finances are joint and he also doesn't have debts/missed payments etc.. Although he does have the phone contracts in his name. Might that show as a plus in terms of a successful credit account?

Definitely electoral role. My friend had same issues re never having had a credit card 7 that didn't stop her getting her mortgage. Do make sure if you get a card you pay it off in time as late charges are horrendous!

Yep, electoral roll and credit card, paid in full each month. Both pretty failsafe ways to improve your score