Morning all,
I was wondering if anyone had any tips on improving your credit score?
My financial history has not been great. Without fully going into detail I have made some poor choices regarding funding my masters which kicked off a cycle of jumping from loan to loan (not realising you mostly pay interest first and not much towards the actual debt) and getting credit cards to pay for monthly expenses. However, I have never missed a payment, all my accounts are up to date and in order. No CCJ's or anything like that.
I'm in a stable position now and I am actively working to pay down the debt. My problem is I have 3 credit cards which are 0% interest. The 0% will be running out beginning of August, March 2020 and May 2020. I have not been able to find a 0% card to switch to for the upcoming credit card due to having a poor score. I have been able to borrow the balance from a family member, knowing I can make some extra cash to repay them, but I do not want to be in this position come March.
Financial advisors from HSBC visited my workplace 4 months ago and they advised me to reduce the credit limit on my cards as I made the minimum payments. So the limit would reduce each month.
However, I recently had an appointment with my bank Natwest who said this was the worst thing to do as it showed I was handling credit poorly. They told me to get another card (!) to spend £50ish on each month and they pay it in full. I am not in a position to get another card, I just don't have the score for it. I am worried about this advice as she seemed to want me to just take out further products.
What I'm trying to ask is there anything anyone has done which has actually improved their score?
I was wondering if anyone had any tips on improving your credit score?
My financial history has not been great. Without fully going into detail I have made some poor choices regarding funding my masters which kicked off a cycle of jumping from loan to loan (not realising you mostly pay interest first and not much towards the actual debt) and getting credit cards to pay for monthly expenses. However, I have never missed a payment, all my accounts are up to date and in order. No CCJ's or anything like that.
I'm in a stable position now and I am actively working to pay down the debt. My problem is I have 3 credit cards which are 0% interest. The 0% will be running out beginning of August, March 2020 and May 2020. I have not been able to find a 0% card to switch to for the upcoming credit card due to having a poor score. I have been able to borrow the balance from a family member, knowing I can make some extra cash to repay them, but I do not want to be in this position come March.
Financial advisors from HSBC visited my workplace 4 months ago and they advised me to reduce the credit limit on my cards as I made the minimum payments. So the limit would reduce each month.
However, I recently had an appointment with my bank Natwest who said this was the worst thing to do as it showed I was handling credit poorly. They told me to get another card (!) to spend £50ish on each month and they pay it in full. I am not in a position to get another card, I just don't have the score for it. I am worried about this advice as she seemed to want me to just take out further products.
What I'm trying to ask is there anything anyone has done which has actually improved their score?