Improve your credit score with Loqbox Save
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Feeling unsure about finances is pretty common. If you've been wondering about how to improve your credit score or want to understand it better — Loqbox can help!
We know how to increase your credit score the easy way. With Loqbox Save you can improve your credit score — just by saving! Decide how much you want to save each month, starting from £20 a month. Then watch your credit score grow as we report your monthly savings to Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Plus, you’ll get a personalised financial plan to help with improving your credit score.
We know how to increase your credit score the easy way. With Loqbox Save you can improve your credit score — just by saving! Decide how much you want to save each month, starting from £20 a month. Then watch your credit score grow as we report your monthly savings to Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Plus, you’ll get a personalised financial plan to help with improving your credit score.
Common questions:
What is a credit score?
Credit can be confusing! And Loqbox wants to help you understand the ins and outs of it. Here’s the essential info to know:
Your credit history is a record of how you use credit (and how well you pay it back). It's built up over a long period of time and helps towards generating your credit score.
A credit rating is a system that helps businesses decide whether to lend to someone or not based on how reliable they’ve been in the past — this is called creditworthiness. The rating can be generated as letters or numbers. Each lender will have their own way of measuring it and the public doesn’t typically have access to these credit ratings.
But it’s helpful to have an idea of how likely you are to be approved for credit before you apply. That’s where credit scores come in. Credit scores are a way for you to get an idea of how a bank or lender may view you. It’s based on things like your credit history (including any missed payments), your address history, people you have joint accounts with and even being registered to vote.
In the UK, there are three main credit reference agencies (CRAs for short) that create your credit score: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. They each have their own scoring systems, meaning you have three credit scores (not one).
Your credit history is a record of how you use credit (and how well you pay it back). It's built up over a long period of time and helps towards generating your credit score.
A credit rating is a system that helps businesses decide whether to lend to someone or not based on how reliable they’ve been in the past — this is called creditworthiness. The rating can be generated as letters or numbers. Each lender will have their own way of measuring it and the public doesn’t typically have access to these credit ratings.
But it’s helpful to have an idea of how likely you are to be approved for credit before you apply. That’s where credit scores come in. Credit scores are a way for you to get an idea of how a bank or lender may view you. It’s based on things like your credit history (including any missed payments), your address history, people you have joint accounts with and even being registered to vote.
In the UK, there are three main credit reference agencies (CRAs for short) that create your credit score: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. They each have their own scoring systems, meaning you have three credit scores (not one).
Why is a credit score important?
We all have big financial goals in life! And even though they say ‘the best things in life are free’, the reality is that most of them cost a fair amount of money (big sigh).
Whether you’re saving to get on the housing ladder, planning the wedding of the century or you can’t sleep because you’re dreaming of backpacking across the world. Everyone is working towards a goal that can be supported by keeping their finances in order.
Credit histories are important because when you need to ask a bank or lender for help with a loan or mortgage, they’ll be looking to see if you’re a safe bet to repay them. And if you have no evidence of using credit, then they can’t be sure of your creditworthiness.
Plus, having an improved credit score can save you £1,000s on the rates for mortgages, credit cards and loans.
Whether you’re saving to get on the housing ladder, planning the wedding of the century or you can’t sleep because you’re dreaming of backpacking across the world. Everyone is working towards a goal that can be supported by keeping their finances in order.
Credit histories are important because when you need to ask a bank or lender for help with a loan or mortgage, they’ll be looking to see if you’re a safe bet to repay them. And if you have no evidence of using credit, then they can’t be sure of your creditworthiness.
Plus, having an improved credit score can save you £1,000s on the rates for mortgages, credit cards and loans.
How to check your credit score
You may have heard of Experian, Equifax or TransUnion (the three main CRAs in the UK). Each use their own scoring system to generate your credit score, and will issue you a report once a year.
If you’d like to check more frequently without harming your credit score, then you can use these companies for free:
- ClearScore* (uses Equifax data)
- Credit Club (uses Experian data)
- Credit Karma (uses TransUnion data)
We recommend you check your credit scores at least once a year.
But keep in mind that these scores are for the public to get an idea of their creditworthiness, and not what lenders will actually use to decide to lend to you. Once you know what your credit score is, you may find yourself asking how to increase your credit score.
* Just for transparency, if you decide to sign up to ClearScore using this link, we'll receive a small commission.
If you’d like to check more frequently without harming your credit score, then you can use these companies for free:
- ClearScore* (uses Equifax data)
- Credit Club (uses Experian data)
- Credit Karma (uses TransUnion data)
We recommend you check your credit scores at least once a year.
But keep in mind that these scores are for the public to get an idea of their creditworthiness, and not what lenders will actually use to decide to lend to you. Once you know what your credit score is, you may find yourself asking how to increase your credit score.
* Just for transparency, if you decide to sign up to ClearScore using this link, we'll receive a small commission.
What is a good credit score?
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There isn’t a universal rule for getting a good credit score. Each CRA has its own scale to measure what a ‘good’ credit score is. This data was updated in June 2022.
What is a bad credit score?
Having a ‘poor’ credit score doesn’t automatically mean you’d be refused a mortgage, loan or financial product. Because lenders use their own rating system to decide.
But you may not get as good a rate as someone with an ‘excellent’ score (who will typically get offers with much cheaper rates)!
If you peek at your three scores and find you have a ‘good’ score with one CRA and a ‘poor’ score with another, it can be easy to feel downhearted about it.
It’s important to know that these numbers don’t define who you are as a person (you’re awesome). But if you want to get to work at improving your credit score, Loqbox Save can help.
But you may not get as good a rate as someone with an ‘excellent’ score (who will typically get offers with much cheaper rates)!
If you peek at your three scores and find you have a ‘good’ score with one CRA and a ‘poor’ score with another, it can be easy to feel downhearted about it.
It’s important to know that these numbers don’t define who you are as a person (you’re awesome). But if you want to get to work at improving your credit score, Loqbox Save can help.
What affects your credit score?
Here are some helpful dos and don’ts for positively affecting your credit score:
✔ Spread out your credit applications.
Ideally aim for no more than one hard credit check every six months.
✔ Keep on top of your payments.
Missed payments can bring down your score and affect your credit history.
✔ Aim to keep your debts low, but the amount of credit you could borrow high.
Lenders like to see a low credit utilisation (i.e. spending only a little of your available limit on your credit card).
✔ Keep your oldest credit card going!
This shows how long you’ve been using credit well, so if you’re closing any accounts — don’t choose the oldest one.
✔ Build up your credit history over a long time.
It isn’t called a history for nothing. And not having used any credit historically can negatively affect your creditworthiness.
Remember:
Lenders can’t see your credit score. But they’ll have their own rating system to help them decide to lend to you based on your credit history and other things.
How to improve credit score
Now you know what affects your credit score, you’ll likely have a good idea of how to improve and increase your credit score. You can put this into action to start getting your credit score up and feel good about being one step closer to your financial goals — woohoo!
Here are some other ways to make improvements:
Here are some other ways to make improvements:
✔ Check your address history is correct.
Let Experian, Equifax or TransUnion know if something isn’t right.
✔ Register to vote.
In terms of improving your credit score, it doesn’t matter if you actually vote or not. Being registered helps the CRAs to find your current address.
✔ Ask to remove any old financial connections.
We mean your exes and old housemates that you had joint accounts with. Unfortunately, if they have a poor credit score, they could be bringing yours down too.
✔ Never miss a payment.
This is really important because missed payments, defaults and CCJs (county court judgments) can leave a mark on your credit file for six years (eek). If this has happened, but you had a good reason, you can raise a notice of correction to give an explanation to a bank or lender in the future.
✔ Pay off your debts.
We know it’s a lot easier said than done — paying off debt can feel like you’re scaling a mountain in your slippers. But making a start at paying off debts will help your happiness levels improve with every milestone. That’s a positive impact on your mental wellbeing, as well as your credit score.
✔ Only aim for one hard check every six months.
‘Soft checks’ don’t leave a mark on your file, but you may see a ‘hard check’ affect your credit score. It’s quite normal to see your score rise and fall. And each time you ask for a new line of credit (i.e. get a new credit card or take out a loan) you’ll likely see a dip in your score until the lender starts to see you regularly paying them back.
✔ Get started with Loqbox Save.
Just choose how much to save every month and Loqbox will handle the rest! It’s quick and easy to get set up, and you’ll be on your way to a better credit score in no time. Read here to learn how it works.
How long does it take to improve your credit score?
Your credit score will take some time to improve, there isn’t an abracadabra moment that can improve your score overnight.
But the steps above can get you on the right path to an improved credit score. And the sooner you start, the sooner you’ll see improvement.
That said, we know it can be a long road to get your finances on track. So if you’re ever struggling to pay your debts, our good friends at Step Change can help.
But the steps above can get you on the right path to an improved credit score. And the sooner you start, the sooner you’ll see improvement.
That said, we know it can be a long road to get your finances on track. So if you’re ever struggling to pay your debts, our good friends at Step Change can help.
Improve your credit score with Loqbox Save
1. Save
Choose how much you want to save over a year. We’ll lock away that amount in your Loqbox Save. Like a digital piggy bank.
2. Grow
Make your monthly savings payments to hit your savings goal. We’ll report these to the UK’s three main Credit Reference Agencies — growing your credit score as you go.
3. Unlock
Once you’ve finished saving, open a new account with one of our partner banks to make Loqbox Save free for you to use. Or if you’d rather withdraw into an existing account it’s just £30 for your credit-building, savings and financial education journey.
Still have questions?
Find out more about Loqbox Save.
Find out more about Loqbox Save.
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