Credit rating advice.

[Raldazzar]

Hiya,

so, firstly, I'm well aware this may not be the best place, but oh well, I figured some people here are certainly smart enough, and worldy enough to be able to offer decent advice. beats another girl advice thread at least!

so, a quick background.

so, I'm 29 years old, I have been married just over a year, and have an 8 month old boy. I work fulltime, have done for 2 years now (been consistently working for my adult life)

When I was 18, I was living at home, and was a naughty boy, I had an offer for cc's, my father had a decent job, and as I was under 18, it was assessed based on him. long story short... alot of things bought I couldnt afford! I was stupid, I know this now, but hindsight... It has since been cleared. but had no payments made on 2 cc's for over 2 years.

Ontop of this, my sister who has some issues, has tried to take out cards in my name, which has raised a few red flags on my credit report. (to her address) and I have an outstanding legal battle with Orange (courtesy of Phones4u) after being missold in 2009.

so, long story short! (Well, as short as I can make it) Im a good boy now. I know ive made mistakes, and Im happy to suffer some sufference for it. but in the last 8 years, short of having the Orange battle outstanding (they send me regular letters from 3rd party debtors, despite my complaint being logged for over 1.5 years!)

I have recently applied for credit for a sofa. only 899 in the sale! this is over 4 years, as it happens, im doing ok financially at the moment. Ive been blessed in that respect. now, I was denied for this. and thats ok, I mean, they said I can pay 20% now, and then the remainder when it comes in (5 weeks, so doable)

my query! (at the end of this long post!) how am I meant to get a positive credit score back, or not positive, but... better. to show that I am not that guy anymore, It makes me feel like quite a failure to my family to not be able to get the sofa we picked out the easy way.. (yes, Im aware I have failed in the past etc etc)

I have no outstanding debits with the exception of rent, and my Virgin tv/broadband etc..

so, any tips from you money savvy people on how I can improve this?

Thanks for reading. and Im sorry if you feel the need to troll

[aztr0]

At least you acknowledge you made a mistake when you were younger. My suggestion is based on what I have experienced. Personally my credit (from what I know) is very good (no late payments, never missed a payment or defaulted). But I started looking into applying to credit cards and noticed that I was being declined. I got sick of this and finally requested my credit report from the 3 credit bureaus. One glance at it, and I know those credit bureaus sit on their ass all day and do not check that all the details match the person. My sister has a similar name to me when shortened. And her bad credits got into my credit report and dragged it way the heck down. I wrote and contested every single error on my reports and the bureaus fixed the issues. But I digress... in your case, I would check your credit report to see what is on it. See what debts are still outstanding (under your name), and dispute whatever that is not yours.

Another suggestion if you want to build your credit again, go to a bank and apply for a secured credit card. This card is a prepaid CC, you spend what you put in it. The benefit is that it shows as a credit card. I've heard people that had no credit, and after a while (no idea how long) of going through the secured credit card could freely apply to any CC.

[Raldazzar]

Thanks for the advice Aztr0, Ive got my credit score report, and it lists me as no CCJ's, no defaults, nothing like that... it was Experian, and they rate you from 1-999 - It gave me 824/999. I know of course its not a solid 'give me credit' button, but, I didnt think it was too bad, aside from the above mentioned things (my sister, and Orange, and even in the case of my sister, it was just applications in my name, so its on there, but not mine, so the only negative on their is the Orange thing.) It did mention that It could be lower as im not on my local electoral roll? that second suggestion is a good idea, I shall look into that.

In the meantime, any more advice is more then welcome Thanks very much Aztr0

[aztr0]

Check your scores/reports with Transunion (Callcredit in U.K.) and Equifax. 824 from Experian is good, but one good score doesn't mean the others are the same. In my case, my transunion score was mostly correct, while the other two were very wrong.