Every time you borrow money in the form of a loan, credit card, hire purchase agreement, mobile phone contract or anything else, your credit rating will be impacted. In much the same way, your credit score is also affected each time you make a repayment to your debt, or miss a payment. The type of impact that each action has on your credit score will determine whether you have a low, average or high rating. Somebody who borrows a small amount of debt and makes all payments on time is likely to have a high credit rating, while on the other hand, if you have a lot of different debts and have struggled to make repayments and been late with a few in the past, your credit score may suffer.
Unfortunately, it’s a lot easier to get a bad credit score than it is to get a good one, and one missed payment can have a huge impact. So, how long does it really take to improve your credit score and what can you do to improve it quickly?
Don’t Expect Overnight Improvements
Thinking that your credit rating will immediately jump up once you have a paid a debt off is a common misconception that can leave you feeling disheartened if you work hard to repay debts only to find that nothing has changed. But, don’t worry, as long as you keep going, your credit score will definitely improve over time. Negative impacts on your credit score such as missed or late payments can stay there for six years and hold you back, but after that amount of time, your credit rating should get much better as long as you are still in control of your debt.
Paying Off Debt without Missing Repayments
If you have a lot of debt, this can negatively impact your credit rating even if you are making the minimum payment each month. Lenders are less likely to consider you as a low-risk candidate to lend money to if you are already paying off a lot of debt, and this in itself can cause your credit score to drop even if you haven’t missed any payments. As a result, the best thing to do is find a way to pay off your debts faster without it having a negative impact on any of them. Thankfully, there are several options that you might want to consider.
Debt Consolidation
Consolidatig your debts is one of the best ways to get them cleared off and leave you with less to worry about. Achieving this usually requires applying for a Personal Loan, which can give you the opportunity to consolidate your debts into one, thereby reducing the stress that comes with having to manage multiple debts. If you have a lot of smaller debts that you are dealing with, this can become hard to handle as you try to keep up with which payments are due at what times. In addition, having a lot of smaller debts also means that you are paying interest on all of them, meaning that over the long term, you’re paying back a huge amount more than you actually borrowed.
Consolidating your debts means taking out one loan or credit card that you will use to repay each debt. Clearing all your debts with the new loan means that you will only have one debt to worry about replying and one lot of interest to pay. If you have a bad credit score, you can find loans for bad credit scores at New Horizons. New Horizons is a regulated broker that works with a certified UK panel of trusted lenders to help you find the best loan for your situation.
Snowball Method
Another option that you may want to consider if you are averse to borrowing any more money is the debt snowball method. Using this method, you will repay the smallest debt first, then use the money that you would normally pay towards this debt to pay more towards the next debt up, which will get that one paid off faster. As you work through your debts, you will free up more and more money as each one is paid off, so that when you finally get to the largest debt, you are able to pay everything that you would have normally been paying towards all your debts combined straight to that debt to get it cleared quickly. Continue paying the minimum payment to all your debts as normal throughout the process so that you do not cause any damage to your credit score.
Debt Help
If you are struggling to make repayments to any of your debts, the above methods might not be ideal for you right now. Thankfully, there is help available. You can work with a company to get a debt management plan where the company will negotiate with creditors on your behalf in order to reduce your payments. Although this might mean that it takes longer to improve your credit score, it can prevent serious damage as the debts are still being paid off.
How long it will take to improve your credit score will depend on your situation and the method that you choose to clear your debts.
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