Good or shaky credit history

C

Citizen Jake

Registered User
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Hi guys,

I'm saving for a mortgage right now and it'll probably be a year before I'm completely ready.

However, from reading about things like the Credit Bureau and how having a bad rating/history could affect your chances of getting a mortgage I am a little worried. Generally I'm quite good at my finances but about four years ago I messed up over a few months with my credit card by simply not paying my bill for a few months. I got a call, and got right back on track. Needless to say I still have the same card (it's the only one I've ever had and I've had it 7 years now) and make regular payments. Although I've never completely cleared the card, I still use it and make the regular monthly payments. My questions:

1. Because of this "bad period of non-payment" will this stick in my record despite my ongoing use of the card and relationship with the provider?
2. Are you endangering your credit rating by not completely clearing the credit card even though you manage all the necessary minimum payments?

Another related question I have is once, again about four or five years ago, I wrote a cheque that bounced (I took a chance on a post-dated cheque banking on wages arriving on time, they didn't). I got a call from the bank, went in and sorted the whole thing out and have been in the black ever since. It was the first and only time that that had ever happened. Would that experience impact my credit rating?

Citizen.
 
Citizen Jake said:
about four years ago I messed up over a few months with my credit card by simply not paying my bill for a few months. I got a call, and got right back on track.

...

1. Because of this "bad period of non-payment" will this stick in my record despite my ongoing use of the card and relationship with the provider?
Click to expand...

If this incident was recorded on your ICB file then it will persist for five years from when it was sorted out. You can for a fee of €6 to see what the status is right now.

2. Are you endangering your credit rating by not completely clearing the credit card even though you manage all the necessary minimum payments?
Click to expand...

Since this complies with the terms & conditions of the credit card agreement I would not think so. However obviously it's a bad idea to use your credit card for anything other than very short term credit and racking up credit card interest charges on outstanding balances is a sign of poor money management.

Another related question I have is once, again about four or five years ago, I wrote a cheque that bounced (I took a chance on a post-dated cheque banking on wages arriving on time, they didn't). I got a call from the bank, went in and sorted the whole thing out and have been in the black ever since. It was the first and only time that that had ever happened. Would that experience impact my credit rating?
Click to expand...

Bouncing a cheque is not in itself something that would be recorded on your ICB records as far as I know. However if the bounced cheque was a payment for a loan then it could have an impact on your credit history. Best to check with ICB to see what the situation is right now. And don't maintain an outstanding credit card balance if possible.
 
1 - Sounds Like the card was not cancelled - so you don`t have a problem.
2 - ICB records are kept for 5 years, so even if it does show up on your file, which I doubt, it will be gone in 12 months.
A few late payments on a credit card four years ago will not bother a lender much. If you have a continuous history of missed loan / cc payments then thats another story.
Don`t worry about it.
 
Guys, long story but it has just come to my attention that a very old credit card debt was not cleared (Had agreed with Partner at time to clear it..blah blah..)
Anyway I have contacted the bank in question and agreed to clear it (€500)
They've told me that they recorded it as a bad debt in 2002 however if I clear it ASAP they will update the ICB to show I cleared it in full. I also had a personal loan out a few years (3 years ago ) that I missed payments on. (travelling around aus-young and niaive. That has been recently cleared.)
I recently did a credit check on myself and nothing appeared to come up (although in fairness it was chinese to me).. question is I'm now looking to get Mortgage approval!!!!!
Am I wasting my time??? Do institutions take into account that when you get that little bit older your not the same 'kid' with a credit card?.
thanks
 
If the credit card debt is still outstanding then you would not be wasting your time in settling the debt now. This will help ensure that no nasties crop up on your credit history. I don't understand how you were able to determine that there were no issues with your credit history records if you couldn't understand them? There is no harm in doing whatever is necessary in order to clear up outstanding issues and making sure that your credit history is as clean as possible especially in advance of looking for more credit (in particular a mortgage). If there are any negatives on your credit history then some lenders will most likely be a bit more cautious about lending to you than if your record was clean.
 
Thanks Clubman. Ok saying I didn't understand it is probably pushing it. :)
It appeared that the only loan recorded was an old finance deal (car). It logged the last 24 months with a Zero. I understood this to be that 0 was ok..ie every month was paid.
Since doing the check (dec 04) I've since been approved for credit(With Lombard) for a car (7k). I figured if I was able to get finance for a car my credit can't be that bad. Although I did apply recently for a tesco's credit card and they turned me down. (This is what initially got me searching the old debt-I had suspicions it wasn't paid.).. Anyway what should I do now??? I've got all the forms in front of me for mortgage approval (through a broker). Should I leave it and wait till 2007 when the icb is clear or clear the debt with the credit card,(Thats a given anyway.) and try for approval now anyway? I will be gutted if I'm turned down for a mortgage which I why I'm inclined to want to get it over and done with!!!
Thanks for advice.
 
If you need to buy a house now then you should go ahead and apply for loan approval. You should also shop around (regardless of your credit history issues) and not just try one lender. If you don't need to buy for a few years then wait.
 
evanne - if you moved house and didn't include this information on your application form to the ICB then they will only be reporting on some of your history.

There might be one evanne with a reasonable history at one address (which you got a report for) and another evanne at another address who forgot to make some repayments and which the bank will find out about when they check your records.

If you missed payments and the institution was a member of the ICB I am pretty sure these missed payments would show up on your history, so they must be there somewhere. Did you move address during the last few years ?

z
 
Hi Zag,
I did move address, but I supplied them with all of my addresses in the years they asked for and they came back to me with pretty much every address Ive had in the last 10 years. Is it safe to assume that because I've gotten credit since I'm relatively ok for mortgage approval? Or should I hold off?.
I don't 'need' to buy a house now but I would like to start getting organised.
If I'm declined this time around is there a time limit before I can re-apply?
thanks
 
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