All you need to know about your credit score & how to make it better!
What is a credit score?
Your credit core is a number that basically shows your credit worthiness. It is based on a number of things and usually ranges from 300-850. You are considered more financially trustworthy if the score is higher.
What contributes to my credit score?
There are many elements that make up your overall score. These generally may include:
- Your total debt
- Any missed or late payments
- The number of accounts
- Type of accounts
- Age of accounts
- Credit currently available to you not used
- Your address history
- Any financial associations (previous partners etc)
What is a good credit score?
A credit score of 700 is considered good. That doesn’t mean you can’t apply for credit if your score is below that, it may just mean that the credit available to you is limited.
What affects my credit score negatively?
The elements listed above all contribute to your credit score, but having missed payments or defaulted on accounts will most definitely affect your score.
How can I improve my credit score if I am in debt and struggling?
The best way to tackle any debt is to face it head on. This is always difficult because it means being honest with yourself and taking action that is different to that you took to get to this point. There are lots of resources you can use to help you. The first step would be to get an overall picture of your credit score and what is affecting it. The best resource for this is Experian www.experian.co.uk
With the report you can see all the detail for all your credit accounts.
The next step would be to begin reducing your debt. Try to make arrangements to make payments that are late or missed and pay off the smallest debt first.
I am struggling to sort out my debt myself, where can I get help?
We have a section on our site that signposts some of the best places online for debt.
