Fixing Your Credit Score – The Right Way

You may wonder why a bad credit score really matters, but it does. This is particularly true if you want to borrow any money. Any County Court Judgment (CCJ) payments that have never been made and bankruptcy orders will typically mar your name when attempting to get credit.

If you fail to meet deadlines for credit card payments, direct debits from your bank account for power bills, council taxes or any other regular payments that you have committed yourself too then you will gain yourself a bad reputation. This will start to become evident when at some point you are refused credit. Refusal of credit puts your credit rating in doubt instantly. This means you are considered high risk and it is unlikely you will be granted a loan while in this situation.

Despite your loss of dignity when denied a loan due to your poor credit score, there are ways you can make improvements. Your life doesn’t come to an end if your credit rating is poor, but in order to repair some of the damage, time is a necessary factor. Bankruptcy reports may affect those individuals’ ratings for as much as six years, but as most of us don’t file for bankruptcy it may only take around 12 months to restore creditworthiness.

You should first of all ensure that any debts you have are linked with your name and address. This will safeguard your honesty. Check to make sure your credit file has no errors. It is not uncommon when someone has the same name as another person that from time to time credit scores get disrupted. You may end up, if you are not careful, inadvertently taking on part of someone else’s debts.  Establishing your true identity can be done through ensuring you are registered on your local electoral role using your usual residential address.

If you are short of cash don’t rush into attempting to get a loan. Any lender will detect your unstable situation and will instantly reject any loan application. Ensure, in order to reduce suspicion, to spread out any loan applications over a period of time and make it appear that you are in complete control of your actions.

Other factors that will put you in good stead for a loan are having an account with the same bank, such as Barclays UK, staying with the same employer for a long period and living in the same property for a considerable period of time.

When you engage in a loan agreement make sure you pay back the money owed as soon as possible. This will raise the stakes of your creditworthiness.

When it comes to the use of a credit card, don’t keep any debts long enough to accrue additional charges, as you will have to pay a lot of interest. If you can resist overcharging your credit card for a minimum of 6 months, then this will help your credit score. When it comes to hire purchase arrangements such as for buying products in Asda superstore or IKEA it is better to negotiate a repayment method that only requires you paying smaller payments weekly or monthly. This ensures that you are more likely to have the cash in hand to pay off those HP agreements.

It won’t be long through some sensible decisions that you will have rebuilt your credit score.

About the author: 

SB writes for Guarantor Loans Direct .