I have some questions about my credit rating.?

It would be great if some finance professionals preferably UK could advise me! My questions are 1.will asking for my free 30 day equifax credit report affect my credit rating in any way? 2. I have just paid off my credit card. Should i keep it open and use it to 30% of its limit and pay it off each month to improve my score? 3. I am paying 2 collections agencies although on time with my payments. one nearly paid the other will take longer. How badly will this affect my score and is there a chance that if the collections agency is owned by the bank that it will be passed back to the bank? If so will this look better and does your credit improve if you are paying on time even though it is a collection agency? Lot of questions I know! Really appreciate it!! cheers!

Public Comments

1. First and foremost, if you clear your credit card every month your not in fact doin yourself any favours. Your better off using it and making payments on a monthly basis. I say this because my inlaws had a credit card for 20yrs and cleared it every month. They were advised that technically as they werent using credit they werent accumulating any credit points.
2. the credit card payments will be on your credit scoring, the collection agencies will be on it and even though you have cleared the debt it stays there for 5 years, i would keep the credit card going
3. To answer the first question, no taking the 30 day free equifax credit report will not affect your credit rating one bit. Secondly, just using the credit card once it is paid and keeping the payments up to clear it will not do much to repair any adverse credit score you may have. Thirdly,some collection agencies are owned by banks and some are private firms working on behalf of clients. Really it is up to the bank or the collector to inform Equifax that all debts are paid and they have been paid satisfactorily. These companies can leave comments on your file that you can't see so that other suppliers you try and get credit from are able to make the right judgement when offering you credit. I defaulted on a mobile phone about 8 years ago and had to get the mobile phone company to speak to Equifax as they had not made it clear on the file that it was paid on time and had been cleared. Lloydstsb declined my mortgage application because of it. It is always worth getting a credit report sent to you, I think it only costs £1.00 - £2.00 and you can check through the report and make sure that all the suppliers you have used in the past have showed that the debts have been paid off. If you find something that is not right make sure you ring equifax and get it sorted as this can adversely affect your next bid for credit. Hope this helps.
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5. firstly- any check on your credit file - in this case your own- may extend any entries on that file. if you are paying a debt collection agency then their client will have undoubtedly registered you with experian as a default payer- this will remain on file for 6 yrs and will not be updated until paid in full when it will be marked as satisfied. it will not show a reduced balance or marked as paying regularly. when you have paid the account with a collection agency you should ask for a letter of satisfaction. send a copy to your original creditor and ask if they would consider removing their default notice- i would advise writing a nice charming request as they are not obliged to remove their entry. credit is not a right and it is up to the business that you apply to how they view your history. my advise regarding your credit card . if you have any surplus cash pay off your old debts first before incurring others.especially if you have any CCJs i would not advise anyone to regularly check their own credit file unless they suspect identity fraud.
6. Having a good credit rating, helps a consumer get a loan or credit at better rates and for larger amounts.To know "How to improve credit rating, credit score" plz follow link- http://www.acreditlibrary.com/improvecredit.html