People read things so literally here sometimes.

I pay it off before I get charged.

My Experian score is 985 lol...

 

For sure man, whatever works.

Do you have the discipline to consider consolidating your higher interest stuff into either a bank loan, or by snoozing some 0% credit cards?

 

We are going to talk to the bank in October when our first loan is cleared. We have all the jnfo they need regarding income outgoings our plan how much we will save per month if we took a big loan out. Just hope they will see it will be better than what we are doing now. We can get our payments down to £900 month if we stick it all on one loan that s nearly 600 per month surplus for us to save up. Fingers crossed they will see ..

 

Don't forget to actually pay off the bill when it arrives from that pot Or set up a direct debit to automatically pay it for you.

 

As others have said take credit scores with a pinch of sale, I have a credit card that gets a few hundred spent on it each month and paid off in full, I have a mortgage that has never missed a payment and overpays all the time, I have over £30k in credit card unused balances (I am bad at closing cards when I stop using them), and have recently taken out a couple of interest free purchased over a year or two (I can afford it as also have a decent 5 figure amount in savings) and yet Clearscore gives me 491 out of 700 and I would expect to be approved for pretty much anything I apply for (within reason as I wouldnt expect to be able to get a million pound mortgage for example), although to be fair that also says the country average is 414/700

Edit - Experian gives me 999 out of 999 as a score

 

Nah, just above average. Savings were an inheritance when my Nan passed.

 

Can take weeks, but make sure it shows up on all of them. If it doesn't, you need to take action.

 

The balance isn't reported to the credit agency until you receive the statement. It may take several days after that for it to actually show on your report too.

Same thing happens when you pay it off, the balance won't update until next statement so it won't show zero balance on your credit report after the direct debit comes out.

 

You would a much higher score but the fact you have several cards that are unused is a negative.

 

You've paid off your mortgage and you don't sound hard up, so why are you worried about your credit rating? Try and avoid needing to use credit, and pay for stuff out of savings. Credit is best avoided if possible.

 

Nothing wrong using a credit card as a debit card, spend what you HAVE and you'll be safe. If you can't control that spending, then I agree.

 

Credit cars are inherently safer and offer rewards. Spend within your limits and credit cards are vastly superior to debit cards.

Front your credit card with a Curve card for additional rewards.

 

Have you tried applying for a credit card yet? You might be okay anyway, even if they only offer a low limit to begin with, which is probably best for most people. Credit cards have their uses just be sure to select the option to auto repay in full each month to avoid temptation or forgetting to pay it off each month manually

 

Make sure you don't buy the rental car company premium insurance - just get their worst product where they hold $xk dollars on your card. Then buy your excess insurance from carhireexcess.com for like 40 quid.

 

hmm i used to have bad credit back when i was young when i got my first credit card thinking the overdraft was money i 'owned'.. boy was i in for a treat. To make things worse, i had a dispute with O2 as they mistakenly charged me for something i did not owe which ended in me having a Default on my credit rating.

The way i went about this was to first clear as much debt as possible, even just paying a bit more than the minimum amount per month to get back to 0.

Might be a bit counter-intuitive but every couple months or so, i would apply for a credit card... (that is key as everytime you are searched.. whether by Experian or what not, can impact your rating) regardless of who it was by and what interest rate it had on it. I would then make sure to spend no more than a tenner on each card and set up a direct debit/standing order to pay off the balace in full each month. This was a good way of recovering your score as it shows you are using your card often but also paying it back in time... the only down side is, it's bit of a double edged sword as having too many credit cards can hurt your rating too, and if you don't use the card at all, at least close the account otherwise that too can have an effect.

It's took me roughly 5 years to get my rating back up to where i consider myself financially stable and was able to get a decent mortgage for my first house