Surprising Factors That Impact Your Credit Score

It is vital to keep track of your credit score. It does not matter what your current financial situation is, your rating is going to impact your ability to borrow money, and so you need to know your score and maintain it. To do this effectively, you must know what factors influence your credit rating. You probably realise that making your credit card payments on time is critical, but there are some other surprising factors that have an impact as well. So, let’s take a look…

Whether you are on the electoral roll – A lot of people do not realise this, but whether or not you are on the electoral role will have an impact on your credit rating. If you are not on the electoral roll now, make sure you apply and this could result in an instant improvement.

The age of your credit accounts – When you talk to any credit repair companies, they will tell you to avoid opening new credit accounts. This is not only because you will be using more borrowed money. It is also because it decreases the age of your accounts, which has a negative impact on your credit rating. You can find out more about this at repair.credit/best-credit-repair-companies/. In most cases, the average age of your accounts needs to be 33 months or older to have a positive effect. If your accounts are less than 33 months old, this will have a negative impact on your credit score.

How many credit applications you have made – A lot of people make numerous credit applications simply because they want to see whether they would be accepted for certain financial products or not. If you do this, it will have an incredibly negative impact on your credit rating. This is because credit applications result in a hard search being performed on your account, which impacts your rating in a negative manner. You can find out more about hard searches at https://www.clearscore.com/credit-score/checking-your-credit-report-does-not-affect-your-score. This will show on your account for six months. The best thing to do before applying for any financial product is to use an eligibility checker to find out whether you will be eligible or not. This will ensure you do not apply for products you do not have a chance of being accepted for.

Who you are financially associated with – Last but not least, whom you are financially associated with will make a difference to your rating. For example, if you have a joint bank account with someone who has recently been made bankrupt, this can have a negative impact on your rating. You can rectify this financial pitfall by ending your monetary association with this person, i.e. closing the account you have together.

Hopefully, you now have a better understanding regarding the different factors that have an impact on your credit score. This should help you to maintain your credit score both now and in the future.