What is a good credit score in the UK?

Having a good credit score is one of the most import aspects of applying for any kind of financial product. It doesn’t matter if it’s a loan, credit card or mortgage. There is no doubt that your credit score can be the one thing that makes a huge difference to what gets offered.

Typically the first time you will come to notice this is when you go off to HSBC, Barclays or Zopa to get a loan and get knocked back!

So what’s the benefit of having a good credit score in the UK?

The main benefit is that if you have a good credit score you will be able to save yourself a lot of money in the long run as you will be avoiding high interest rates. The better your credit rating the more you will have access to better rates on financial products.

At the other end of the spectrum if you have what would be classed as a bad credit rating then you will be offered higher interest rates which equate to overall worse deals for you.

So it’s not a clear cut decision?

It certainly isn’t. The reason for this is that the 3 main credit referencing agencies in the UK all score it differently. So a good Experian score will start at 700 with 800 being considered excellent while with Equifax anything good is considered 660 and above!

What can you do to improve your Credit Score in the UK?

There are a number of tried and tested ways to improve your credit score with the most popular being.

Make sure you close down any old accounts you may have. It doesn’t matter if it is a debit card or credit card you don’t use anymore. The fact that they ever exist and are assigned to you will act as a mark against you so get them closed!

Being on the Electoral Roll is one of the easiest ways to increase your credit score. It’s completely free to do and just takes a few minutes of your time. If you haven’t done so then just head on over to About My Vote and you can register there. Without being on the ‘Roll’ it is extremely unlikely you will get any kind of credit!

Getting personal for a second if you have any accounts that still exist with previous partners these can also damage your credit rating. One way to resolve this is to send what is called a ‘notice of disassociation’ to the Credit Reference Agencies (So Experian, Equifax and Noddle etc.) letting them know you are not connected to that person anymore.

Finally one of the easiest ways to improve your credit score is to keep an eye on it. It’s a great idea to get hold of your credit report at least once a year just to make sure there isn’t anything on there that you didn’t know about as sadly checking your credit report is one of the many ways people find out that they have been a victim of fraud as they see financial transactions on there that they had nothing to do with!

As always remember that there are companies out there like cashlady.com and Zopa who will be able to help you obtain a loan if you have a bad credit score.

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