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County Court Judgements
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Credit Scoring <
Harassment By Creditors

Credit Scoring
Credit scoring is used by lenders to help them assess the risk in lending money to individuals and business's. It is a pseudo-scientific way of assessing the risk of default.

Each lender applies their own criteria and formulae to the raw data which is held by credit referencing agencies such as Equifax and Experian.

Your score is dependent on many things, principal among them are: -
• Level of existing exposure to credit. A lender will not want to give you money if they feel you are already over committed.
• How well existing accounts have been run. e.g. have you made your payments on time?

The only people with access to your credit rating are companies from whom you are applying for credit, existing credit providers and you.

All adverse credit indicators stay active on your credit history for 6 years. For a CCJ, that is from the date of judgement and for an IVA it is from the date the arrangement is registered with the authorities. You should note that you do not have to wait six years from when an IVA is completed for the record to be shown as satisfied.

Once a judgement has been paid or an arrangement adhered to, then it is marked as satisfied on your credit history. Creditors are less than thorough regarding this point and it is advisable to personally ensure that your credit profile is up to date.

A CCJ adverse credit indicator will only be wiped off your credit history permanently if the judgement is satisfied within one month of issue.

Lenders are not able to link reports about people that live at the same address unless they have joint financial commitments.

If you have been incorrectly linked to someone in your household then you can apply for a notice of disassociation. Your credit rating should no longer be affected by a family member's poor credit history.

If your credit report shows that you have been unable to keep to credit arrangements in the past, then you may be penalised with a higher APR in future borrowings. You are perceived to be a bigger risk to the lender in terms of repayment and the cost of the credit reflects that risk. Recently many lenders have emerged that specialise in lending to this “sub-prime” market.

Repairing your credit starts by obtaining a copy of your credit history from one of the credit reference agencies. Then check to see whether the information held on file about you is correct.

If it is correct, the following simple steps may help revive your rating: -
• ensure you are on the electoral role for the property in which you live
• install a home telephone line
• rebuild your credit rating by taking out small loans or credit cards and paying them back in accordance with the repayment schedule