Improving bad credit

wannabedamned · 10 Sep 2009 at 14:40

How can it be done? I've been told the best way is to get a credit card and use it often, and pay off the balance instantly.

Now due to having bad credit already, I can't get a credit card, they wont give me one, And rightly so.

My bad credit is down to mistakes with money in my past. Spanning from when I got a contract phone with vodaphone when i was 17 and onwards, I was very immature, I'm not now, And i want to rebuild my credit.

Any good tips out there? Any recommendations for a credit card for people with bad credit? I saw a card from capital one which was supposed to help with bad credit, and I even got turned down for that. I really don't want to be black marked my whole life, due to stupid mistakes I made.

HarryPainful · 10 Sep 2009 at 14:45

First of all get your credit report from experian and equifax and see what is going on with that.

Try someone like vanquis or capital one, they have really high interest rates but thats the price you pay for being irresponsible with money in the past.

Having any credit agreement and paying it on time will help with your credit history.

mattyfez · 10 Sep 2009 at 14:54

Being on the electoral role will help also, and (if you can get one) another contract mobile counts as credit also.Ive got the same issue, but not down to unpaid bills, just because I didnt have any current loans and ive moved around a lot.

Got myself a CC that I just use for the odd bit of food shopping/petrol.. takes time though.

Squink · 10 Sep 2009 at 15:11

You can get 'pre paid' credit cards where you can only spend the cash you put onto them - you can get these whatever your credit rating as there's no risk to the card provider. Apparently they can help with your credit rating. I believe O2 of all things offer one free to their customers. There are other ones around, though I think they tend to have associated (modest) fees.

HarryPainful · 10 Sep 2009 at 15:21

The pre paid ones will not help your credit history, they will not count as a credit agreement and as a result not show up on your credit file.

Only things like,mortgages ,loans, bank accounts, mobile contracts, credit cards, store cards etc will show up on a credit file.

mrmoose · 10 Sep 2009 at 15:23

Stop applying for cards you know you won't get to begin with.

HarryPainful · 10 Sep 2009 at 15:25

mrmoose said:
Stop applying for cards you know you won't get to begin with.

This is true as well, a lot of searches on your credit file will do more harm than good.

My advice would be, find out what is in your credit files and go from there.

Then in a few months apply for a CC from vanquis/capital one.

Manlove is my forte · 10 Sep 2009 at 15:37

Get an expedian Report, contest any undeserved black marks. Write to all companies that you no longer have debts with and ask them to take themselves off your report. Get Expedian to put remarks against your bad marks which have been settled but not removed.

Sort out your personal banking.
Don't go overdrawn ever.
Make sure that your outgoings are less than your incommings, (MS Money (or its replacement product which is free) helps with this.
Set up a savings account and add to it but never remove from it (even if its only £25 PM)

You could go the CC route. I'm not 100% sure this is a great idea TBH the risk of ******* up is too easy esp if you have an expensive hobby such as computing.

If you have done the above then Credit Rating shouldn't be too big an issue. Its not something that you can (usually) fix overnight, it takes years.