by Kirsty O'Lone

Created on: May 10, 2009

Your credit score is what lenders use to decide whether they are going to approve you for credit or not, it is therefore vital that you get and maintain the highest score possible and that your credit report makes for positive reading, especially in today's financial climate. If you have a lower than average credit score you may struggle to get credit such as loans and credit cards, and you may even have difficulty opening a bank account. There are many things you can do to improve your credit report and score, although it will take time.

The first step towards improving your credit score is to know exactly what is on your credit report, you should order a copy of your report from all the major credit reference agencies as they all have slightly different criteria and you have no way of knowing which agency a potential lender will use. Once you have all the reports check them thoroughly to make sure that there are no errors on them and that all the searches listed were actually initiated by you. If you find anything that you feel shouldn't be on your report you should call the credit reference agency and discuss it with them as they can usually sort minor mistakes over the phone and give advice on what to do about any major error.

Possibly the most important thing to check on your credit report is that you are listed as being on the electoral register, companies look at this as proof that you do in fact live where you say you do. If you are not on the electoral register then you really need to get yourself registered to vote, this can be done online in most cases. If you are on the register but this is not reflected on your credit report call the agency in question and ask them to check this, a possible reason for this is a slight variation between your address as you know it and the version on the electoral register and this is easily sorted out by the credit reference agency.

You may think that if you have never had credit in the past you will have a perfect credit score, however this is not the case. To get a good credit score the credit reference agencies need to see how you manage your credit, so if you are new to credit you won't have any previous accounts that they can look at and will therefore have a lower score. In this case improving your score is relatively simple, all you have to do is get some credit and maintain it well for several months until your score improves. Although with a lower score you may struggle to get credit you will find

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>