Reply With QuoteI believe it does help your credit score so it's good to use available credit and pay the full balance every month.
So I had some cash left unspoken for after moving to my new house, and I managed to clear all my loans/CC debts. Feels great! I've heard that I should keep my CC accounts open as unused credit will boost my credit rating. Is this true?
I believe it does help your credit score so it's good to use available credit and pay the full balance every month.
Good for you. Re the credit cards - kind of. Good to keep one or two open but maybe reassess your limit(s). Large limits can hinder, small limits can hinder too.
Get a cashback card of some sort and just do your spending on that. Set the DD to clear in full.
With credit cards, I believe you have to use them, as that establishing a pattern of borrowing and repayment. Using less than 50% of available credit on any single source at any one time is beneficial.
Then overall debt is looked at, and your overall debt to available credit.
It's just a matter of time...
yes, also dont close a cc account before opening a new one , consider ditching current cards for 0% purchase ones , if not yet done also suggest you go on your credit report the free ones are perfectley good, credit karma, experian which will give you good info on how to go foreward with cards etc, also give your credit file to catch up with you been debt free it takes time! oh congrats ,been mortage free is a even better feeling :-)
Congratulations, it is a nice feeling. You don't say how many credit cards you have, but if I had more than two I would get rid of the rest.
I use a credit card for just about all every day purchases, linked to my current account to clear the balance each month.
Have an old post office CC for Euro and USD purchases as it has a good rate and no commission on same.
In some 35 years of having CCs I have avoided paying interest at any point.
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I own my house, have no mortgage, no overdraft, no loans, no credit cards therefore no debts.
I also have a mediocre credit rating.
For some reason this bothers me, although I have no intention of getting into debt.
Credit rating isn’t important if not needing to get credit though
If it really bothers you do as others have said and get a Credit Card, use it to pay for everything and then pay it off in full each month.Originally Posted by Kevin
We've done that for years on a Tesco Credit Card and get Clubcard points which are useful for holidays, ferries, AA cover, in normal times - Cost us nothing, but we get a benefit.
Our Experian rating is the maximum, apparently.
We are, though, in the process of part-remortgaging our house, so I suspect that'll change.
M
Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
True, but as I never had a credit card, a loan, or a mortgage, for a few years, and stayed off the electoral register, I ran in to a little difficulty when looking to borrow.Credit rating isn’t important if not needing to get credit though
I also couldn’t rent a car in Europe, and had to have a full retained amount taken from my debit card at a posh hotel, which was then recredited at the end of my stay, all because they only accept credit cards, which has the ability to reserve an amount preauthorised, in case of any damages etc.
Now I have a couple of credit cards, automatically set up to clear every month, and one of which even provides me with cash back on purchases. I also tend to take out one 0% finance loan each year, so I have a running credit/repayment history for a loan, and fortunately/unfortunately I have a mortgage again as I feel in love with a particular house and went for it...
credit score is now better than ever, but I don’t really need it - that’s no doubt always the way!
It's just a matter of time...
My heartfelt congratulations to you. A rite of passage.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Agreed. I don’t care a jot about my credit rating and have never tried to find out what it is, or even if I have one.Credit rating isn’t important if not needing to get credit though
I have no debts or credit cards (took a long while but great) if I havent got the money I don't buy it and I have no idea what my credit rating is but I do pay rates, gas, electric, TV licence, mobile phone, broadband, water etc so I would have thought they perhaps count towards credit rating ?
Congratulations OP in this day and age its an achievement.
Just read the comment above, made me think about going into debt !! :)
Do you think I should buy a new watch on 0%?
Credit cards are fine to use if you pay them off monthly. They can help improve your credit. Even if you think you’ll have no need for borrowing, you never know. They also give you added protection for buying things. Make sure you have one that gives you something back - air miles have always been a big plus for me (not in the last year), though ones with cash back or supermarket benefits are also good.
Oh and sign up for a free monthly credit report just to make sure no fraudulent activity is going on. Money saving expert offer one through Experian.
I used to have a 999 rating and then it dropped to about 950. On looking at their methodology it’s turns out that paying off my mortgage reduced my creditworthiness!Hmmm. That's giving me pause for thought, albeit that my Experian rating is 999/999 (whatever that means). Do you think I should buy a new watch on 0%?
Go figure. I guess they are looking for a track record of paying bills regularly. So I have about 4 credit cards that I rotate and pay off monthly.
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Very similar mine was 999 and dropped to 977 for reasons I can’t fathom other than paying the mortgage off nothing had changed lol ah well I’m not planning on any loans etc I do use a credit card for most purchases and pay in full month end
Of course, if it was something you’d buy anyway - then it’s a no brained. Better if you can also utilise discounts and cash backs - although I’m still trying to find an option where they end up paying me.Do you think I should buy a new watch on 0%?
If you go to the effort of having regular bills recorded on your credit they can definitely be used to improve credit scores. But in the days of GDPR, I doubt many providers are handing over your data openly.
It's just a matter of time...
After being totally debt free for 8 years I tried to get
A credit card for online purchases. But because I hadn’t used any sort of borrowing for so long all I could get was a really high interest one with a £500 limit!
My credit score was about 280, my friend who has debt coming out his ears can get a 15k limit card.
I use my credit card every month and pay it off every month but the total purches never amount to more than a few hundred pounds. Because of this, RBS has gradually reduced my credit limit from £15,000 a few years ago to £4,000 now. Every time they reduce the limit, a few points gets knocked off my credit score.
Eddie
Whole chunks of my life come under the heading "it seemed like a good idea at the time".
Weird isn’t it? I am in a similar position to you, with some money in the bank, a healthy household income, stable job. No debts.
I’ve never defaulted or missed a payment on anything, ever.
Yet since getting to this point my credit rating has dropped from 999 (ie perfect), to 920 something- (ie good).
This irritates the hell out of me. The only time I can see it being an issue is when I come to change my car (which is contract lease). If they don’t get the best possible deal I will be extremely annoyed.
It has been explained to me that it is because I don’t carry any debt, or have a credit card balance that I have been downgraded- absurd!
Last edited by TheFlyingBanana; 10th April 2021 at 13:38.
I've not had a credit card for more than 25 years, no mortgage for 7 years (the only debt I've ever had) and a UK address for less than 3 years. I assumed based on comments here that I would have a poor credit rating (not that it would bother me) but I just checked on Experian and scored 999. Go figure.
Last edited by Mr Curta; 14th April 2021 at 16:25. Reason: typo
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
Spurred on by this thread I actually called Experian and discovered that my credit score has been temporarily affected because - and get this - I recently upgraded two mobile phones (mine and my wife’s), and because O2 essentially (and uniquely) does each phone as two credit contracts, the line and the phone separately, it counts as extra credit arrangements with Experian.
Apparently after three months my score will revert to what it was.
Utterly, utterly ridiculous over such a small amount of “credit” with a phone company I have been with for twenty years and never once missed a payment.
MrCurta - there appears to be little discernible logic to this!
So clever my foot fell off.
Neither use nor hindrance but I couldn't resist checking :)
So a Tudor BB58 on zero credit beckons ? my wife would physically (all ready done it mentally :) )castrate me in my sleep :)
999
Well done mate
Get yourself down the chipph and get a fish supper. I went in for 2 out the blue and had to add a fiver to the twenty I had ready to pay the woman with.
Prices like these you'll soon get that card balance up... Lol
Good effort anyway
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I've never had cause or the urge to even check my credit score, not bragging but it's been just something the mortgage lender did upon receiving an application, in my experience.
There was a time not so long ago that folks didn't bother/ have such things as this Experian day to day checking system.
Does it make people any happier/ enrich life to have another thing to be checking on and obsessing about...genuine question.
What's the point of it...
Last edited by Passenger; 11th April 2021 at 11:09.
My interest in Experian has been piqued by this thread.
Although I have no need nor intention of obtaining any credit, I am mildly curious as to what my score would be. I make most purchases on a 0% interest credit card and pay in full each month, manually not auto-debit.
So-
Is it free to check your rating?
Will it launch a shitstorm of offers from lending companies?
Are there any drawbacks that I might not think of?
How do I do it?
Sign up via moneysavingexpert. Free monthly report. No hassle at all.
We advise every client to use one of the credit search agencies just to make sure nothing untoward has happened that they are unaware of.
Thanks guys; I'm on it.
I will report back just in case any of you were thinking of lending me something.
Thanks Stephen... really useful and easy. I didn’t know this was available through MSE.
Hmmm.
Credit rating 999 - that's good.
Loan of £3000 chance of acceptance - 0%. That's bad.
Good job it was only an academic exercise!
Credit karma is free to sign up to and gives you your rating and also tells you who has searched for you .
I always used my Amex or credit card and clear at the end of month.
I prefer the security as I do most of my purchases online .
I signed up to the free one a good few years back when I found someone had tried getting iPhones in my name fortunately sorted pretty easily with no issues but it made me wonder if I’d ever know before it was too late etc, so I now get a free alert each month which is the only reason I know what it is. Lots of scams are done in other peoples names for the sake of about 1 minute a month it’s worth checking you’re not a victim in my opinion.
Interesting thanks...I imagine my bank would pick up and alert me to any 'unusual' purchases, or I'd notice it when I check my account and contact them etc. it might take a while for the funds to be recredited, ime they get it done in the end. I don't have a mobile myself, so no mobile banking app. I'm very careful with my cards.
Wouldn't any scam have to have already taken place in order for your credit rating to be impacted, thus already too late...
It is not about purchases it is about credit applications, how would you know if a loan or credit card had been taken out in your name?
Well since I haven't taken out a personal loan in probably 25 years or more I doubt I'd make a particularly good mark OR does that make me the best kind of mark, gulp/Yikes...Ahh Experian here I come...But seriously since I don't bother with loans / credit I'm struggling to find much enthusiasm to add this to the list of tedious annoyances of modern life. If the applications are somehow linked to one of my Banks then it becomes a problem for me, though ime the banks have teams of people in place monitoring unusual activity and they're good with re crediting the account.
I already have mortgages against rental properties , and experienced no problems switching providers about 2 years back on 2 of them, my credit still would seem good. I can't see what all the fuss is about, at least for myself.
Also there must be something in it for the likes of experian, decades back I sold advertising in Marketing and Direct marketing magazines and experian were a large client back then, promoting and offering their services to companies who wanted a clearer picture and more data about their customers buying habits, profiles and so on, they're definitely not a charity, it's not altruism.
Last edited by Passenger; 12th April 2021 at 10:42.
Clearscore is also free.
https://www.clearscore.com/
So clever my foot fell off.
No such thing as a free lunch.
Signed up to Credit Karma for a squint. They advise credit score would be improved by utilising up to £6k of my available credit card credit, rather than at 0% utilised now. Weird.
Also being on voters roll for longer at current address. Nowt can be done about that.
Next watch going on the credit card then.
I'd take it with a pinch of salt. A lot of it is BS to try get you to buy their score improving tools/monitoring services or apply for credit via their site so they get a kickback.
My credit score on Experian is 999/999 but my score on Credit Karma is 641/710.
On Credit Karma I have "more to do" with my credit utilisation even though their site says I'm utilising 0% of my available credit. I usually clear my cc balance in full before the system produced hence low perceived utilisation.
Interested to see that, so signed up for Credit Karma and I have a similar (999 - 651) disparity.
M
Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
Only had mortgage as a debt for about 20 years or so. I've never had a loan other than a student loan which I paid off within 2 years. I'm 49 and will hopefully pay the mortgage off this year before I'm 50. My single credit card gets paid off each month. If my credit score is 0, it wouldn't really bother me unless my credit card kicked me out for not being of any value to the provider as I have never paid a penny in interest.
Makes me sound like scrooge....
Sorry I should have been more clear it’s to do with credit applications more than actually taking money out of your account instantly type thing I’m not sure if it’s still the case but people where get mobiles for example on contract then selling the phones and leaving some poor unsuspecting with the contracts etc and it’s often something small like that on their way to borrowing more in your name with a payday loan or whatever apparently.
As I said for the sake of about 30 seconds a month it’s just peace of mind if you don’t care or need it fair enough but that’s why I check mine no intention of borrowing etc
just a note on credit and how daft illogical it is , i am partner in two BTL, with my son, our fixed rate mortgages run out this year, we have gone to our broker who has got deals last twice we we remortgaged, he has now informed us we can not get a joint re mortgage as i am now not credit worthy since i retired april last year,(i am a liability his words) and we will need to pay the full mortgage off, this dispite me being the most well off i have been in my entire life, more free cash than i know what to do with (well not but you know what i mean), more money in my pension ( drawdown) & bank i have ever had, and kredit karma also says i have nil chace in getting a loan!
I am in an identical position. I only use my CC for the occasional purchase, for fuel and it is linked to my PayPal account. All in, rarely getting to £200 in any month and always paid in full well before the date. My credit limit was £15000 and is now down to £3800 so it must be that as RBS don't get a penny from me in charges they must consider that I don't need credit.
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