Rebuilding credit rating

Hi Em81 and welcome to the forum.

You are to be congratulated in handling the matter as you are doing. And yes, you should use the credit card and maintain it in absolute apple pie order so that you begin to leave a trail of neat and tidy borrowing habits. Use the card regularly and never miss a payment and make them on time.

Credit Builder Credit Cards are not a magic fix but they are certainly a start.

In my esperience building good credit means paying all your bills on time and in full.

Avoid making too many applications for credit cards , bank accounts and always pay in cash that way they cannot trace your purchases.

Hi Em,

If you're looking to build your rating then keeping on top of the payments is key as has already been suggested. However, another key aspect to your credit rating is your 'profitability' from the creditors point of view. So paying your card off in full every month might save you a couple of quid, but it is not earning the creditors any real profit from the interest. So, I tend to leave a £100-£200 balance atleast on a card at a time. That way the creditors can see that they are earning a porift, although minimal from you having that card.

From a creditors point of view its not just your credit rating with cards, its the profitability. Why give someone a credit card when they clear in full every month and don't earn any interest. They might as well offer a 0% credit card forever...which obviously doesn't happen.

As for paying in cash - I pay for pretty much everything in cash and use the card for diesel and that's it but I have my reasons. But if you are looking to build your rating then using the card for most things isn't a bad idea. Provided you have the ability to keep on top of it and not get tempted to spend the money needed for the card payment elsewhere. Also, using your card a lot allows banks to build up a profile for your spending, and makes it easier to spot if a card has been stolen or cloned by tracking unusual payments.

Hope this helps =]