@equifaxuk Credit reports / scores etc

[jga1912]

Hi all

 

I'm looking for advice on defaults / credit reports / scores as I'm getting totally confused.

 

First a bit of history. Back in 2004 I got in a right mess with several different lenders totalling over 35K, all personal loans, CC's. I entered into a DMP with Payplan & although the first few years were a bit up & down, I finally finished that in May last year.

 

During that time some of the debts were sold on to collection agencies, some were passed to other lenders when they were taken over, an Egg loan being one example. Because of the way the debts were handled, defaults were issued at different times, but the very last one has it's 6th birthday tomorrow.

 

I have just done the free 30 day trial with Equifax & indeed only the one default shows, but they give me a credit score of 359. I read on here people with much more on their reports with higher scores, so I'm a little confused. CheckMyFile has my score with Equifax at 545. I am waiting for reports from Experian & Callcredit.

 

Currently my report show's me up to date with Vodafone, Capital One CC, a new Capital One CC approved in the last couple of weeks, and no problems with my bank acc's, all this with no payments missed. It also shows one of my old debts with Northern Rock as 'arrangement to pay' but settled last year. Lastly it shows a settled loan with Co-Operative & a settled utility with BT.

 

I am on the electoral register, havn't moved for 19 years so all good there. My red bits in Equifax score is the one default which reports an unpaid amount of £2200. This is all paid & done with & as of thursday no longer a part of my history, so should I expect to see a big improvement in my score?

 

Many thanks in advance

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

The ''mythical and marvellous'' credit ''score'' is intended as a day to day indiction of how you may be viewed by a potential lender and is not seen by others.

Defaults being removed will not drastically improve the ''score''.

What is not on the report can be as bad as what is showing, the AP settled or not indicates you have had problems managing credit, the new credit card will in fact lower the score as a new commitment which of course has no history.

Settled loans etc also have little effect.

 

To rebuild a credit profile to get a good ''score'' takes a minimum of three years it is goog credit management of the period of time that builds the ''score''.

 

Making frequent apps for credit products will lower the ''score'' accepted or not.