Top Tips to Build Your Credit Score

Credit Scores take a while to build back up and you have to be consistent to see real benefits. Most negative items on your credit score will disappear after seven years, but good debt – debt that you’ve handled well and paid as agreed, is good for your score. Here are our top tips that can help to move your score upwards:

1. Keep credit card balances at least 30% below their limit – we’ve spoken about this one before in previous blogs, but the trick is to pay down those balances and then keep them low. You could talk to your credit card provider about making several monthly payments if this helps you – little and often.

2. If you have lots of credit cards or loans with small balances on them consider paying them down or consolidating them into one loan. Credit scores will take into account how many cards/loans you have. A TFS Guarantor Loan can be used to consolidate a number of different debts. We offer loans between £1,000 and £15,000 over a 12 to 60 month repayment period. 44.9% Representative APR.

3. Limit the amount of times you apply for credit in a year and if you are applying do so over a short period. Every time you apply for a loan, credit card etc. it causes a small reduction in your credit score that lasts a year, but this doesn’t usually kick in until 30 days after you have made the applications. The reason for this is that if you make multiple applications for credit it usually means you want to use more credit. This doesn’t apply to mortgages, car and student loans – you can apply for these as many times as you like and it won’t affect your score.

4. Pay those standard monthly bills on time every month – this is a big determiner of your credit score. If you’ve got savings and you can’t meet your monthly bills – use your savings.

A TFS Guarantor Loan can help to build your credit score providing that it is paid on time each month.

To apply click here