Increasing credit score

[mylittleprince]

Trying to help my dd increase her credit score so that she can get a credit card before she goes travelling. The advice from the bank was to use klarna, but on googling it doesn't look like this affects your credit score. Does anyone have any other suggestions.

A credit card in her name will potentially be needed for hotel check ins where they place a hold on it, other than that just emergencies.

Is she on the voters roll? This is the easiest cheapest way to increase a credit score.

if she doesn’t have any already get her some direct debits such as paying off her phone contract.

get her on Experian it will recommend credit cards that she will be likely to be accepted for. There are loads out there with lower limits that are designed to help people build credit ratings

It depends on her starting point and WHY she needs to improve her credit. Has she had problems/late payments before? Or just no credit at all?

Start with her getting access to all 3 credit reference agencies by signing up to Clearscore, Credit Karma and Martin Lewis's Credit Club which gives full, free access to your Experian report.

I agree with the above advice, but if she really cannot get a CC, could you put her as an additional cardholder on one of yours?

Joining the electoral register.

Having a few different payment ways. On my clearscore i have a next card, (i wouldnt use klarna, but think store accounts do same thing) the phone bill contract she could use as proof of keeping up with contracts. Obvs credit card.

I use credit card then pay off way over the minimum amount each month, some months i pay bits off twice. Some months clear, sometimes big purchase on it, some months nothing.

My score is really good. It jumped up after joining electoral role and opening a store credit thing (next)

Thank you this is really useful. She is 18 so has no credit score as far as we know. She will sign up to check her credit later.

Her phone is part of a family contract. She doesn't have an overdraft as she worked part time for two years before going to uni to save up. She does get tuition fees and a maintenance loan through SFE but wasn't sure if that counted as obviously she is currently just borrowing and not paying back as at university.

Let her have a Very account or similar clothing store credit. Klarna etc don't count towards credit score but actual credit like very, next etc will.

Join Experian and it will recommend cards she is likely to be accepted for. Even if those cards are huge interest rates it won’t make a difference as long as she pays it back each month. What you might find is she starts with a low credit limit. By spending and repaying each month in a few months they will offer to increase the limit.

Let her get a store card and buy something and pay off more than minimum every month.

Assuming she has a student bank account, does the bank where this is not offer students a credit card?

Interest rates on the kind of store cards you apply for in shops are really high so clocking up debts on them is really not recommended.

The credit score isn't seen by any lender when applying for credit. Have you tried to apply for anything yet?

If they are planning to use when travelling over seas you ideally want one that won't charge extra fees for using it abroad. The Martin Lewis website is a good start and if you join the credit club there you will get free access to your Experian credit file.

@Hitchens not applied for anything yet and don't really want to go down the store card / klarna route if it can be avoided as she doesn't have anything she wants to buy!

We'll start on the Martin Lewis website thank you.