Anyone got any useful advice on improving a credit rating which ought to be fab but isn't?

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We want to get a mortgage soon.

I've just checked my credit rating on checkmyfile.com and it's not fab. Which is annoying, because 2 years ago when we were in a MUCH worse position financially it looked great. 999 out of 1000 in fact. I KNOW it's about profit and I don't look as profitable as I did as my card balances are lower.

I think it's also down to moving again and therefore having been in current (rented) house for less than 3 years but it's also because I've rate tarted and they haven't got my 0% deals registered yet (despite the fact that I took them out a while ago). So according to the reports my debt is X when actually it's Y, which is a higer amount.

I've written to Equifax and callcredit with copies of my electoral roll registration so they can amend that but I don't know whether to write to them to declare my credit card balances, should I?

While I know that showing card balances and that I am making repayments on time is good, it will show that my debt is higher than it sohws atm BUT it will show that debt to available debt is decent, i.e. I'm not at my limit on any cards.

Any advice? TIA.

I am not brilliant at this sort of thing but wondered if you've tried filling in the check your credit rating forms on moneysupermarket.com? ie for loans. These are just testers - they just indicate your position, they are not real credit checks to show on your credit history.

If your rating comes out as lower than expected, try playing around with your test answers - ie add a year to how long you've lived at your address, or been in your job, or add another credit card to your profile - watch how this alters your credit rating on the test results to find out what has the most impact.

I get a low-ish credit rating when I state I have no credit cards, even though I have a stable background (long term address and job) and a pretty regular payment history. Raising my stated salary by a few grant doens't have much effect on my credit status either. But once I add a couple of fictional credit card accounts to my profile, my credit rating zooms up magically. Mad world we live in - I get a much better credit rating by having more debts! If you haven't done so, try it for yourself.

How many times have you or your dp applied for loans/overdrafts etc in the last year? - AFAIK if you apply for credit more than 6 times in a year, this lowers your credit rating as do any credit refusals.

You may very well know all this already - hope you get some good advice.

And IME you can still get good mortage rates even if your credit rating is not brilliant - it is easier to get a good rate on a mortage than an unsecured loan IME.

Thanks Tigermoth, that's a good idea, I'll do that. Despite having rate tarted there are no searches registered, which makes my rating worse, all very irritating.

The way it works, is lenders want to see you have a history of borrowing and paying it off. When I worked for an IFA, if clients like yourself had a low credit score due to a lack of history. We recmmended they applied for a couple of credit cards. Put £30 on them a month and ensure it was paid off using a direct debit and this increased their credit score.

Good Luck

I used to be a credit underwriter. It was a few years back so it may have changed but the princials are the same.

do no lie on your credit applications - it is fraud and lenders will prosecute.

Each lender has its own credit scoring system, they use equifax and experian to check your credit payment history, your DOB and Electoral Roll info ( these 2 are the quickest ways to spot fraud). There is no central "credit scoring" system.

Things that are good on cedit history are a good payment history or no history ( I would question any site that suggests that it improves your score to have credit cards - do they proide cards /loans?). Also good things to see are stability factors such as owning a home, long time in a job, marrige and kids. Bad things are poor credit payment history, mis matches on the application ( if you say you have lived somewhere for 5 years and it is only 2 on the ER), and not disclosing addresses ( Equifax and Experian both back link to non disclosed addresses). Lots of searches and no credit will cause most lenders to turn you off - they work on the assumption that you are not disclosing and the other lenders have turned you down, not that you have decided not to proceed.

Thanks, I know some of this.

I haven't lied about anythign - the issue is that I have quite a bit of debt on 0% which DOESN'T show on my equifax and Callcredit and Experian reports, therefore it looks like I'm using all my avail credit, (as ONE card, which is up to its limit as it was a 0% bal transfer is shown) when in fact I'm not at all. On an app form I'll declare it all.

I know not being on the electoral roll (despite having filled in the forms) won't have helped so I've rectified that. I don't understand why recent card balances aren't showing, they're big lenders, HSBC etc. And it's NOT helping that they're not showing because it looks like I haven't got a thorough credit history, when I have!

And I've got no late payments, no ccjs etc (not allowed to in my job either, I'd be sacked if I did, I work in finance)

Have you actually paid the £1 or whatever it is to get your full reports from Experian and Equifax? Might be worth checking there are no mistakes on there. A few years ago I did this and they had my mothers address as being linked to me becasue I once got some credit card statements forwarded there for a few months while I was out of the country and my sister who lived there had been marked as financially linked to me (same surname I guess) - even though she in no way was. Her poor credit rating due to late payments on loans etc was affecting me. I wrote to them and (eventually) got the address and her name unlinked and never had any problems again.

Ive got all 3 reports from checkmyfile.com