Credit Scores

You need to make yourself as attractive as possible to lenders, in the hope you'll fit their bespoke lending criteria.

Jane Bank & Sarah Lender are on the pull. Neither likes overweight men, and both like dark hair and good looks. Yet while Jane prefers intense guys with stubble, Sarah likes 'em clean-shaven with a sense of humour. So while there are lots of guys they both reject, and some they both lust after, they can still end up fancying different blokes.

If you're not on the electoral roll, it's much harder to get accepted for credit, so sign up immediately. Don't wait for the annual reminder or for the elections to roll around, apply at any time on Gov.uk.

Sounds obvious? Well, it is. Even if you're struggling, try not to default or miss payments because it can have a disproportionate impact. Doing this once or twice could cause problems that can cost you for years. Defaults in the previous 12 months will hurt you the most.

If you split up with someone you've had joint finances with (or just moved out from your flat-share), once your finances are no longer linked, write to the credit reference agencies and ask for a notice of disassociation. You can also call up or find the forms online.

This will stop their credit history affecting yours in the future. However, the agencies say they can't do this if you still have a joint account open with the ex. The account'll need to be closed or transferred to an individual account before you can do it. For example, a joint loan would have to be paid off before a notice be given.

There's a nightmare scenario you need to avoid called the rejection spiral. It works like this:

Do you pay your rent on time? If so, there's a free scheme called the Rental Exchange Initiative which millions of private renters and social housing tenants can use to make paying rent bump up their credit file and boost their rating.

Launched in March 2016 by Experian and The Big Issue Group, it records your rental payments (in the same way mortgage payments would be), which are then added to your Experian credit file. For the first time since its launch, lenders can now see this information too. We explain the scheme more in our news story.

Homeowners rather than renters, and those who are employed, rather than self-employed, tend to be more readily accepted for credit.

These can kill your application. Access to too much available credit, even if it isn't used, can be a problem. If you have a range of unused credit cards and lots of available credit, it could be a good idea to cancel some of them. This lowers your available credit and should help.

However, just to complicate things, long-standing accounts with good credit histories can be a benefit to your credit score, so they're often best left open. There's no definitive answer as to whether you should close down your old cards, because all lenders are different. But, look to strike a happy medium – if you've lots and lots of unused credit, close some cards down, but don't close 'em all. And above all, don't max out.

If you need to cut credit card debt costs, first check if the old cards will let you shift debt from other cards to them cheaply, as you then won't need to apply for new credit. This helps your credit file, and means you're using your existing credit more efficiently. See Balance Transfers for full info.

One of the major problems people face are defaults on their credit reference files – in other words, when it shows you didn't pay but should have done. These, especially if they're recent, are a hammer-blow when applying for new credit.

If the default shouldn't be there, read how to challenge unfair defaults. If it's genuine and fair, your options are limited. After all, credit reference files are there to show lenders your history.

There are two main routes...