Category Archives: Missed payments

What affects your credit rating

There’s a lot of confusion about credit ratings amongst people seeking personal loans and other forms of credit.

Many people believe – wrongly – that a credit record shows whether a lender has refused credit. This is not the case. Every time you apply for credit a ‘footprint’ is created on your credit record to show other financiers what you have been up to, but no record is immediately made as to whether you took up an offer, or whether it was refused.

One thing that varies from lender to lender is ‘how much is too many?’ Most of us are familiar with the concept that lenders looking at a credit record showing multiple applications may – quite rightly – view this as a sign of someone desperately seeking credit. As this is rarely the sign of a good potential client, many lenders will turn this applicant down on principal.

But how much is ‘too many’ when it comes to applications. Lenders will obviously vary, according to their criteria, but a flag usually goes up if more than four applications have been made at any one time. If the applications are spread across a period of months, the lender will be more lenient.
Another factor that people misunderstand about their credit rating is how much stability affects their core rating.

When you apply for credit – be it a mortgage, a credit card or a personal loan – the lender wants to know more than anything that you will be able to repay. The greater the risk perceived, the higher the interest rate charged, which is why bad credit loans can be so expensive.

Factors affecting this can be whether you are married – a sign of committment – whether you are registered as a voter, how many times you have moved house and even how many times you have moved job.

Someone who is seen as high risk is not necessarily someone with a history of missed repayments and ccjs, but maybe someone who has jumped from job to job, moved house or town many times and generally shown a lack of stability.

So, if you’re wondering why you weren’t offered the best rates available on the loan you wanted, you may need to look deeper than you thought.

Credit Crunch – Hope at last

In surprise news this morning, the US government has announced that it will bail out America’s two largest lenders, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Whilst this may seem far removed from the daily grind of most people’s lives, the effect of this action will have far-reaching implications around the globe and already has seen a positive affect on global stock markets.

Most UK homeowners will have never heard of either company, but together they are the largest holders of home loans in the world and as the saying goes, ‘when America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold’. In the last year they had been suffering unsustainable losses, as the American home loans market went into freefall and this was a large part of the credit crunch being felt by all.

Once confidence was lost in America, Asian backers stopped investing funds and the resulting lack of liquidity on the loans market has meant that everything from business loans to small personal loans has been affected by a lack of funds to be lent.

With this move – long overdue according to finance pundits – investment into America is likely to restart from healthier financial markets which experts hope will begin to halt the recession which is threatening to sweep the world.

What does this mean to the average borrower? Well, funds are unlikely to rush into the market instantly, but finance is a fast moving beast and so hopes are high that relief will be imminent for Western business and individuals. Particularly in America where an estimated 9% of homeowners are behind in loan repayments, risking repossession, bankruptcy and long term bad credit.

Government housing measures encourage irresponsibility

Yesterday the government announced what were intended to be some sweeping measures designed to rescue both the housing market from its freefall.

The measures included helping out beleaguered homeowners who had fell behind on loan repayments; offering equity loans to buyers and giving a stamp duty holiday under a new threshold.

So far most commentators on the new schemes have been singularly unimpressed, particularly financial advice site, Moneysupermarket.com.

“The Government plans are certainly high on rhetoric, but lacking in fundamental help,” claimed Louise Cuming, head of mortgages at moneysupermarket.com.

Cuming states that some factors of the scheme are not just unworkable, they also encourage financial irresponsibility by bailing out homeowners who have dragged themselves into debt.

The view that the ‘British Debt Mountain’ is the fault of irresponsible lenders is a popular one in some quarters. Many have claimed that the vast amount of personal loan and credit card debt is due to lenders pushing ‘easy credit’ at borrowers who had little chance of repaying.

Cuming also points out that the plan for offering buyers 30% equity loans is also unrealistic: “this is simply a rehash of the tired old share equity story,” she says.

“This will inevitably only help a fortunate minority as it is co-funded by government and developers, and thus only available on an insignificant number of properties.”