How To Improve Your Credit Rating
If you have a blemished credit record, fear not, as with all things in life, there are ways of improving the situation.
First things first, you must find out what you have on your credit record that is causing the problem. To do this, you need to sign up to a credit checking website and get your personal credit report.
Once you have this, you should be able to see a list of debts that you have, which should detail what status they are all in. This will either be up-to-date, or in arrears, and how many months, in default or CCJ registered.
If when you go through your credit file it simply states that you have some missed payments on credit cards, you shouldn’t worry too much. Once these are over twelve months old, it shouldn’t affect your ability to borrow.
If you have some arrears on your debts, you can pay off the arrears if you have the money to do so. This will put you back to square one, though it could be twelve months before you are fully clean again.
With defaults and CCJ’s it gets a bit more complicated. If you have any of these on your credit file, it is going to be more of a problem. Essentially if you have a CCJ on your credit file, you have had a judgement made against you in a county court. Until you pay off the debt, or satisfy this CCJ, it will remain on your credit file.
With a default, it is much the same as a CCJ. A default is where you have failed to make the payments under the agreement. You must be sent a default notice by the lender to make you aware of the fact. Before they send you the default notice, they should send you a warning, stating that you have 14 days to rectify the situation.
I have read on various consumer action forums that if you do receive a default notice, most likely it is not legally enforceable, as the warning and default notice are not usually within the requisite time frame. If you have received a default, it may be worth investigating to see if you can have it reversed on your credit file. The other option is to simply pay off the debt. If you settle the debt (like I have done with this Barclays bank overdraft), then the default will remain on your credit file, though the debt will show as satisfied.
One Comments to “How To Improve Your Credit Rating”
Dear Author
The question is interesting, I too will take part in discussion. Together we can come to a right answer. I am assured.