What is your credit score and what boosts it?

Nano said:
Using credit is a sensible thing to do if you are sensible with your money. If you have £1k to spend and you can get £1k in credit interest free so you put your £1k into savings/investments then you get a better return than just spending the £1k. If you see the credit as a chance to spend £1k twice then that's how you end up in trouble down the line.
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Yeah , I saw a Youtube talk by the real guy they based the film Catch me If You can, the young fraudster (Abignail surname I think). It's a really interesting watch. However at the end he goes on Q&A about the best way to manage your money and he swore by the Credit card as basically you are not spending anything of your own money, you get a bill each month and as long as you clear it its fine You can get about 7 weeks free delay of having to part with your money. Also when there are problems its usually the card company that sort it out. As his 4 kids went through US higher Ed , he got them to work it this way and be disciplined. Anyway since then for the last 6 years I have pretty much done that. Obv have direct debits for the usual stuff, but out n about I spend on the card. Not worried about collecting points or anything. Totally works for me. I have 1 day a month where I pay it off and that takes 5 mins online. I am pretty sure the under 30's these days with the phone app linked directly to their card just spend more time than they need to checking bank balances multiple times a day
 
Boro_Interlinked said:
Yeah , I saw a Youtube talk by the real guy they based the film Catch me If You can, the young fraudster (Abignail surname I think). It's a really interesting watch. However at the end he goes on Q&A about the best way to manage your money and he swore by the Credit card as basically you are not spending anything of your own money, you get a bill each month and as long as you clear it its fine You can get about 7 weeks free delay of having to part with your money. Also when there are problems its usually the card company that sort it out. As his 4 kids went through US higher Ed , he got them to work it this way and be disciplined. Anyway since then for the last 6 years I have pretty much done that. Obv have direct debits for the usual stuff, but out n about I spend on the card. Not worried about collecting points or anything. Totally works for me. I have 1 day a month where I pay it off and that takes 5 mins online. I am pretty sure the under 30's these days with the phone app linked directly to their card just spend more time than they need to checking bank balances multiple times a day
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I do this, mainly to collect the Avios and get upgrade vouchers for BA, but have a direct debit that automatically takes the balance from my current account on a monthly basis. Given the dreadful interest rates on current accounts there's not a huge value in having the money for 7 weeks or whatever, but it does provide a level of protection by using your credit card.

The only challenge I have is a lot of places (more up north I've noticed) dont take AMEX and so I need to have a separate Mastercard for those circumstances.
 
Probably just to add. Mine has shot up in the past few months since getting a credit card. Use fof fuel only. Pay off in full each month. - or even pay once filled up.

Also loqbox, a savings scheme provided by clearscore
 
Mine is excellent.

I have credit available on cards but hardly use them, but when I do make sure the total is paid off quickly. That counts towards a good score apparently.

Never missed a payment for any bill for a long time either.
 
As said above the credit "score" is basically constructed to allow them to sell you credit monitoring products. Having an "excellent" or "999/1000" rating is meaningless as you can still get accepted or declined and virtually no organisations use the same score as a metric

Customers of CRA's will have a custom scorecard depending on their appetite for risk and that's what they'll use, together with manual review for a percentage of cases and appeals so I wouldn't be too excited or disheartened about scores being good or bad

Another thing is it's not just credit cards that report to CRA's, anything paid in credit - that could be monthly cat insurance, broadband, mobile phone bills etc will all report up as will loans, mortgages and the like

There are soft searches which confirm your identity and you'll get a lot of those when doing insurance quotes etc, and hard searches are ones that impact you more as other lenders see them - too many of those can make you look desperate for credit which is why they say don't apply to too many things especially when applying for mortgages

Utilisation of credit, amount of credit etc all affect how you are viewed but that is different to each organisation

It's often quite irresponsible, I don't utilise a lot of my credit but for some reason, even when I worked for a bank on the phones, I've always been given massive limits.

I remember in the early 2000's with a salary of £16k my first credit card had a limit of 6.5k and rose rapidly. I've got 3 now with limits above £15k but only ever put about £1000 on it any time, but they regularly put them up still. Wild really

Boro_Interlinked said:
Yeah , I saw a Youtube talk by the real guy they based the film Catch me If You can, the young fraudster (Abignail surname I think). It's a really interesting watch. However at the end he goes on Q&A about the best way to manage your money and he swore by the Credit card as basically you are not spending anything of your own money, you get a bill each month and as long as you clear it its fine You can get about 7 weeks free delay of having to part with your money. Also when there are problems its usually the card company that sort it out. As his 4 kids went through US higher Ed , he got them to work it this way and be disciplined. Anyway since then for the last 6 years I have pretty much done that. Obv have direct debits for the usual stuff, but out n about I spend on the card. Not worried about collecting points or anything. Totally works for me. I have 1 day a month where I pay it off and that takes 5 mins online. I am pretty sure the under 30's these days with the phone app linked directly to their card just spend more time than they need to checking bank balances multiple times a day
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I'd rather check my balance regularly than once a month or even a week tbh, I like to know where I'm at financially but it also makes checking transactions for duplication, fraud or errors much easier

I do put most things through card but want to know regularly what is outstanding. I also make sure to use a cashback card as well as cashback sites as it's all money back in my pocket
 
Colgates_shaving_foam said:
I thought the how much does your watch cost threads answer that question?
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But what if someone used a credit card to buy a £5k watch but have never paid any money off it? They might be top 6 in the expensive watch table with a credit score in the bottom 3.
Same with holidays, salaries, favourite restaurants, charity donations, house values.
What we actually need is a weighted amalgamation of all the key measures to create the ultimate table of greatness.
 
My credit score is woeful , but then again i couldn't care less

pay for eveything cash, car, house, never had a credit card, not on the electoral role

I can't see what i can possibly miss out on by not having the ability to get massively in debt
 
ThatFragranceGuy said:
It's often quite irresponsible, I don't utilise a lot of my credit but for some reason, even when I worked for a bank on the phones, I've always been given massive limits.

I remember in the early 2000's with a salary of £16k my first credit card had a limit of 6.5k and rose rapidly. I've got 3 now with limits above £15k but only ever put about £1000 on it any time, but they regularly put them up still. Wild really
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The banks are a lot more careful these days. Since PPI claims went away, the Claims Management Companies have been submitting claims for any other products and practices they think they can get money from. Irresponsible lending has been a big one for the last year or two so banks are now doing more to verify each customer’s stated income levels and have lowered a lot of credit limits as a result. You will almost certainly not get credit limits totalling more than 50% of your salary across all of your accounts.
 
Will_Graham said:
But what if someone used a credit card to buy a £5k watch but have never paid any money off it? They might be top 6 in the expensive watch table with a credit score in the bottom 3.
Same with holidays, salaries, favourite restaurants, charity donations, house values.
What we actually need is a weighted amalgamation of all the key measures to create the ultimate table of greatness.
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There's a how young did you retire thread going right now that needs factoring in as well 😉
 
Colgates_shaving_foam said:
There's a how young did you retire thread going right now that needs factoring in as well 😉
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Another good example - a poster up there has a poor credit score but has bucket loads of cash to buy everything he needs. Houses, watches, cars, holidays. The lot.
Where would he sit in the table? Top 5 easy.
 
Will_Graham said:
But what if someone used a credit card to buy a £5k watch but have never paid any money off it? They might be top 6 in the expensive watch table with a credit score in the bottom 3.
Same with holidays, salaries, favourite restaurants, charity donations, house values.
What we actually need is a weighted amalgamation of all the key measures to create the ultimate table of greatness.
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holidays and favourite restaurants are subjective.

salaries, charity donations and house value are more science-based measures.

credit rating is the best overall measure imho. and mine is 999. just saying :cool:
 
Will_Graham said:
But what if someone used a credit card to buy a £5k watch but have never paid any money off it? They might be top 6 in the expensive watch table with a credit score in the bottom 3.
Same with holidays, salaries, favourite restaurants, charity donations, house values.
What we actually need is a weighted amalgamation of all the key measures to create the ultimate table of greatness.
Click to expand...
Net worth is what you are after. A comparison of the value of all assets less liabilities.

This is why the topic of pensioners getting discounts in the present day when they are the highest net worth individuals isn't as clear cut as it seems. Income is nowhere near as good enough of a metric of a persons buying power as net worth is. Most young adults, all the way up to 30 have a negative net worth and it is only once you buy a house and start accruing equity (which is getting beyond the reach of many young people these days) that the average net worth rises above £0 and it's another 10 years before it starts rising significantly. The very wealthiest will have all their money tied up in assets and will earn their income from their assets instead of from a job.
 
I have no idea? How do you find out? I imagine mine must be pretty good?

I have a mortgage and no other outstanding loans other than an interest free credit deal on a couple of sofas I bought recently, which I probably could have bought there and then, but what's the point doing that if you can do it monthly with no interest?!

I have a credit card, which I use around once or twice a month and always pay it off in full.
 
My credit score max is 710 according to the dial. i am at an age where it doesn't matter what my score is as I don't want to borrow anymore money. (mortgage paid off). That said not at maximum as I use my cc to pay all bills and pay it off up to 59 days later. Avios card for Avios points collection. Gets me cheap flights.
 
Cardiffdaffs said:
My credit score max is 710 according to the dial. i am at an age where it doesn't matter what my score is as I don't want to borrow anymore money. (mortgage paid off). That said not at maximum as I use my cc to pay all bills and pay it off up to 59 days later. Avios card for Avios points collection. Gets me cheap flights.
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Is that the one that’s out of 710 though?

If so, nice humble brag….. 😉
 
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