Not registered to vote? It can kill your credit score

Yet this also massively boosts your credit rating, as not being on the electoral roll stymies your ability to get new credit.

Here are some quick credit boosting tips...

• Register to vote for free online. Go to About my vote to register for the electoral roll. It also shows how to check whether you're already registered.

• Not eligible to vote? For anyone ineligible (mainly foreign nationals), send all credit reference agencies proof of residency & ask them to add a note to verify this.

• (Re)build your credit history. The best way's to get a credit card. It'll need to be an easy-to-obtain one, meaning a 30%+ interest rate, but don't worry, the aim's to spend a little on it each month, but repay IN FULL so there's no interest. Full details in the Bad-credit credit cards guide.

• Beware joint finances. It's not marriage or cohabiting, but joint bank accounts or mortgages that financially link a couple, so avoid this if one of you has a poor history.

• Regularly check for credit file errors. Get your credit file (see how to check for free) and ensure every active account, even if unused, has the correct address. Errors can trigger rejection.

• Cancel unused credit cards. Access to too much credit, even unused, isn't good, so cancelling old cards usually helps. Yet if you need to cut debt costs, first ask if old cards will let you shift debt from other plastic to them cheaply. Then you won't need new cards, protecting your score. See the Credit Card Shuffle guide.

Further reading/Key links

Credit tips: Boost your credit rating. Reject credit card rate hikes