Improve Your UK Credit Rating

Improving your UK credit rating is one of the best ways to reduce your debt. It will allow you to refinance your debts at a lower rate of interest. This article will show you how to go about it.

The Collection Of UK Credit Rating Data

Let me start by saying, that contrary to popular belief, there’s no such thing as a UK credit rating ‘blacklist’.

There aren’t any shadowy organisations that maintain lists of people who are banned from receiving credit (well unless you want to include the courts and the official bankruptcy register). There are no sinister figures dressed in black standing over a blackboard waiting to put a line through your name thus banning the world at large from lending you money.

But there are credit reference agencies. These companies build up information on you and everyone in the country. They store details on your financial position from the electoral roll, court judgements, repossession orders, bankruptcy details, payment records, previous credit applications etc.

Your credit record is one of the main factors that lenders use to decide whether or not to grant you a loan. If you’ve had trouble repaying debts in the past, then you’re less likely to be given credit in the future. And even if you are, you’ll be hit by extortionate levels of interest.

As these details have such an influence on most people’s lives, there are strict rules to prevent details from one person’s UK credit record straying onto someone else’s record.

Credit files refer to individuals not properties. Each person’s file includes details on;

1. Themselves, and
2. The people with whom they live, provided they share a financial connection (e.g. perhaps a couple who have a joint mortgage).

So you should be unaffected by anyone who has a more remote connection to you. For example, being a council tax payer on a house where a credit risk lives should not taint your record.

Part 2: Check your credit record

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