Improving credit score

[yesmyg]

Can anyone advise on how I can boost my credit score?
I'm currently in the Fair score band but need to get it within the good band. I'm signed up to Experian and I've done the boost your score function they offer. Is there anything else I can do that will help it?

My credit score has recently gone down as I've put about £1400 on a 2k limit interest free credit card. It gave me a warning that I'm using over 50% of my credit.

Get a credit card or two , use around £50 a month and pay it in full every time, not minimum payment, in 2-3 months your rating will go up

I've never had a credit card before so need to look into this, will it definitely work?

Do you have a pay monthly phone contract?

Yep, you need to build your score up with a credit card.

Do you have a bad credit history or just no credit history? The actual score is meaningless anyway

Agree the score is meaningless and just a ruse by Experian to extract money from you.

You can see your credit file for free using Credit Karma and probably others too.

No-one has a definitive score or rating and all credit granted is based on an assessment of history by individual lenders, who will all have different approaches.

But it's generally seen that regular use of a credit card, but not all the limit is good, so spend a small amount each month and pay it off in full. Don't have a tiny limit as they want to see that you can have access to credit but not use all of it. There are other advantages of using a credit card (cashback, extra consumer protection, more choice when hiring a card abroad, cashflow management, ability to pay deposits without having actual money ringfenced, eg hotels and even self service petrol stations). So it's more a case of that you do need a credit card unless you know you won't be able to resist the temptation to overspend.

Overdraft use is seen as bad, so don't do that. Manage any cashflow issues by spending on your credit card instead as it delays the time the money is taken from your current account.