How to improve your credit score

1. Register to vote

Free, takes about five minutes at GOV.UK, and it matters more than most people expect.

Lenders use the electoral roll to confirm you are who you say you are and live where you say you live. Being absent from it makes identity verification harder and can cause an application to fail for reasons that have nothing to do with your finances.

If you are not eligible to vote in the UK, ask each agency about adding proof of address to your file instead.

2. Check all three files

Experian, Equifax and TransUnion each hold a separate file, and not every lender reports to all three. An error on one will not appear on the others.

Look for:

• Accounts you do not recognise
• Balances or limits that are wrong
• Missed payments you did not miss
• A default that should have dropped off after six years
• A County Court Judgment recorded against a previous occupant of your address
• Old financial associations — see below

You have a right of access to this data, and all three agencies provide free ways to see it. Disputing an error is free, and you go to the agency, not to a paid intermediary.

3. Break stale financial associations

If you have ever held a joint account, joint loan or joint mortgage with someone, your credit files are linked. Lenders can consider their credit behaviour when assessing you.

Closing the joint account does not break the link. You have to request a notice of disassociation from each agency separately. It is free, and it is one of the more commonly overlooked fixes — particularly after a separation, where the other person's subsequent difficulties can quietly sit on your file for years.

4. Never miss a payment

The heaviest factor, and the slowest to repair. A missed payment is generally recorded once you are a full month behind and stays on your file for six years.

Set up direct debits for at least the minimum on everything. Not because minimums are a good idea to carry, but because an automated payment cannot be forgotten. Pay more manually on top.

If you are heading for a missed payment, contact the lender before the due date. FCA rules require firms to treat customers in financial difficulty fairly, and an arrangement made in advance is generally handled differently from a payment simply not arriving.

5. Bring balances down

Card balances and overdraft usage relative to your limits. This is the fastest-moving factor available to you — it can change within one statement cycle, unlike everything else on this page.

Use the credit utilisation calculator to see where you stand and what repaying a specific amount would do.

6. Stop applying

Every full application leaves a hard search visible to other lenders. Several in a short period looks like either shopping around or difficulty getting accepted, and a lender cannot distinguish them.

Use eligibility checkers — soft searches that show your likely acceptance and often a personalised rate, without leaving a mark. Almost every mainstream UK lender and comparison site offers one. There is no reason to make a speculative full application.

If you have applied several times recently, the useful action is to stop for three to six months.

7. Build history if you have none

A thin file is not a bad file, but it is hard for a lender to assess. Options:

• A credit-builder card — low limit, high APR, designed for thin or damaged files. Use it for one small recurring purchase and clear it in full every month. Carrying a balance on one of these is expensive and unnecessary.
• Rental payment reporting, where your scheme supports it.
• Making sure mobile and utility accounts are in your name and paid on time.

Realistic timescales