Secured Loans And Credit Ratings

There are many factors that affect your credit rating from the obvious to the not so commonly known. These things will become apparent when you go and apply for secured loans, home loans, etc.

Poor debt management is the most obvious factor that will affect your credit rating such as missing your minimum monthly repayments on your mortgage or secured loans. This in turn can lead to higher borrowing costs in the future.

There are however many other factors that to the average person may seem completely irrelevant but to the credit scoring companies say a lot about how you are likely to manage your finances. For example, an applicant with a mobile phone but no telephone landline might be seen as a fairly high risk to the lender. This is because lenders worry that if you only have a mobile phone, you would be harder to locate if you were to default your secured loan payments.

Whether you rent or own your own home could have a great influence. Being a tenant is not looked upon favourably. If you are a temporary worker, unskilled labourer or self employed, this could also count against you.

Another circumstance which could affect your score is down to where you live in the country. ‘Postcode profiling’ is becoming an important part of the credit scoring process. In this way lenders can look to avoid lending to those who live in less desirable neighbourhoods.

The following gives a list of the common ways to blacklist your credit rating:
# Living abroad.
# Not staying on the electoral roll for long enough.
# Moving frequently.
# Renting a flat.
# Becoming a victim of identity fraud.
# Reapplying for a secured loan immediately after you have been refused one.
# Not paying your yearly car tax to the DVLA on time.
# Signing up for lots of credit cards within a short period of time for the free gifts and special offers.

Most high street banks and building societies will only grant secured loans to those who have either good or excellent credit. There are specialist lenders however that would be willing to accept applicants with poor credit records. These are known as bad credit loans.

For those with an impaired credit history, the process of ‘credit repair’ is achievable over time. The first step to recovery is to settle your bad debts and meet payments on your existing secured loans. All unpaid credit and county court judgements (CCJ’s) will stay on your credit file for 6 years. These will be marked as settled as and when they are paid. This is usually taken into account when you’re making future credit applications.

Lenders will often allow you to write a statement to balance out a bad report, which could explain circumstances that might have tarnished your credit rating. So next time you are looking for a secured loan make sure you understand the factors that will effect not only your chances of being accepted but also the rates.

Peter Copper works for Adderson & Co. as their Bad Credit Loans specialist. He enjoys writing on all areas of personal finance.