3 easy ways to... improve your credit score

A higher one can help when applying for a credit card, loan or even mortgage

1 CHECK YOUR REPORTS

Look at your credit reports held by the three credit reference agencies – Experian, Equifax and Transunion. You can do this for free at moneysavingexpert.com/ creditclub/ for your Experian credit report. Sign up at clearscore.com for your Equifax credit report, and get your Transunion credit report at creditkarma.co.uk*. However, each lender has its own system for deciding whether to lend or not. The credit scores you’ll see simply indicate your creditworthiness, based on information in your reports.

2 NEXT STEPS

Ensure all the information in the reports is accurate. Even small mistakes, such as a mistyped address, can affect the score. Ensure you’re on the electoral roll and make sure you pay all your bills on time, so that there are no missed payments on your report.

3 GET A ‘BOOST’

Check out Experian Boost, a free tool from Experian. When you sign up and connect your current account to your Experian Boost account, it will use open banking to share information, such as regular payments to savings accounts, council tax payments and subscriptions. Experian says if you’re making regular payments and not spending more than you earn, you could get a boost to your credit score. And it says it will never make your score go down. For more information visit experian.co.uk