What is Bad Credit UK?

John Mussi

Bad credit UK is a term that many people don't fully understand. After all, credit itself can sometimes be difficult to understand… adding the description of “bad” to it can make it that much more confusing.

But bad credit UK doesn't have to cause unnecessary problems… you just need to learn what it is and how to deal with it so that you can correct it and turn your bad credit UK around.

What is credit?

Credit, or more specifically your credit rating, is a numerical score that's determined based upon the reports of banks and other lenders who you have had a loan, account, credit line, or other form of financing with in the past.

Positive reports increase your credit rating (resulting in good credit), whereas negative reports reduce your credit rating (resulting in bad credit UK). Of course, one or two negative reports won't cause you to have bad credit UK … it takes time and specific actions on your part.

How credit goes bad

Bad credit UK is usually a direct result of your failure to make satisfactory payments on a loan, credit line, or other financing.

This may sound severe, but all that it really means is that you were either commonly or consistently late making payments or that you've defaulted on one or more debts (meaning that you didn't pay it). Often times there are legitimate reasons for this… illness, unemployment, and legal matters such as lawsuits or divorce can all cause you to fall behind.

The good thing is that just because you have bad credit UK now doesn't mean that you have to have it in the future.

How to repair your credit

A variety of credit repair and credit counseling services have been surfacing in recent years, along with the usual scams and businesses that overcharge for the services that they perform. Instead of spending large amounts of money on these services, though, you might consider attempting to correct your bad credit UK yourself.

It will take time, and it may be a few years before you have good credit again, but utilizing credit repair services take time to recover your good credit rating as well.

Contact your creditors to arrange a repayment plan (making sure that you don't get in over your head).

Work on repaying your old debts, but at the same time try to find a bank that will issue you a secured credit card despite your credit rating (these cards can usually be found easily online, and have low credit limits but higher fees than some other cards).

Begin establishing positive reports by making payments regularly on this new card, and as you pay off the older debts your credit report will start to shift from mostly negative reports to mostly positive.

As the older reports age and are erased from your credit history, the new positive reports will have a much greater influence and will raise your credit score back up to good levels.

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About The Author

John Mussi is the founder of Direct Online Loans who help homeowners find the best available loans via the www.directonlineloans.co.uk website.