In the last few years it’s become commonplace to see adverts for credit ratings agencies on the television, but are credit ratings really as important as are often made out? If you’re applying for one of the many bank credit cards from a reputable lender such as Santander, it might be useful to know that there’s actually no such thing as a credit rating.
Each lender, whether it be the Spanish-based super bank or a tiny niche company, have their own system for deciding whether or not to lend you credit, this can be based on a wide range of factors, and differ widely from lender to lender. Each lender will have their idea of a ‘perfect customer’ but what that might be could be based on anything.
First of all, most companies offer credit because they want to make money, so although there’s a lot of talk about the amount of risk that you represent as a borrower, it’s more about your profitability. It’s possible – although rare – that you could get rejected for a card even if you’re the type of person who always pays of their debts at the end of every month and never has missed a payment.
That said, credit rating agencies do play a part, and although many make you pay to check your rating, there are ways of seeing your files for free, or for as little as two pounds. In fact, it’s your right to see them, and you should do so if you can.
The main reason for this is that little things can cause you to have an application rejected, whether that be a small inaccuracy on an old telephone contract, or address details that haven’t been updated. Rejected applications are shown on your credit rating, so if you’re going to apply for something big like a mortgage, make sure you check for any problems before you apply.
If there are inconsistencies or problems you should make sure you get them corrected straight away. Simply write to the particularly agency and they should correct it straight away, if not you may have to call the company with whom you had the original problem. Bear in mind also that a simple problem with one agency may be replicated across the others (there are three big ones) so you may have to check your file with each one individually.
If you do appear to have a bad credit rating and often fail to borrow, there are things that you can do to improve your ratings. For a start you should get on the electoral roll, it might be a small thing but it can make a really big difference. Another thing that you can do is minimise your accounts, clean up any outstanding issues on your rating with the agencies, or even something as simple as getting a fixed telephone landline can help.
At the end of the day, your success or otherwise in borrowing money is more or less completely down to the lender, and sometimes there’s not a lot you can do. However, just a little bit of work can make borrowing money on a card or with a loan a lot easier, so it’s worth a little bit of legwork.

Image: David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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