What are the causes of a bad credit rating | Barclaycard (2024)

FAQs

What causes a bad credit rating? ›

Many factors contribute to a low credit score, including little or no credit history, missed payments, past financial difficulties, and even moving home regularly. Credit reference agencies collect information from public records, lenders and other service providers, before generating a credit score.

Common causes of a bad credit rating include failing to stick to your credit agreement, paying the bare minimum on your credit card each month, and falling victim to identity theft.

A person or business is considered to have bad credit if they have a history of not paying their bills on time or they owe too much money. Bad credit for individuals is often reflected in a low credit score, typically under 580 on a scale of 300 to 850.

Having no credit history can look like bad credit to lenders. It is hard to determine your creditworthiness with nothing to compare it to. Lenders consider the credit model mix when making credit decisions, and someone with no credit likely does not meet most of the requirements.

Paying your accounts regularly and on time will improve your score as you build a credit history. Missed payments, defaults and court judgments will stay on your credit report for six years.

Making on-time payments to creditors, keeping your credit utilization low, having a long credit history, maintaining a good mix of credit types, and occasionally applying for new credit lines are the factors that can get you into the 800 credit score club.

1. Payment History: 35% Making debt payments on time every month benefits your credit scores more than any other single factor—and just one payment made 30 days late can do significant harm to your scores. An account sent to collections, a foreclosure or a bankruptcy can have even deeper, longer-lasting consequences.

Highlights: While older models of credit scores used to go as high as 900, you can no longer achieve a 900 credit score. The highest score you can receive today is 850. Anything above 800 is considered an excellent credit score.

How do I clear my bad credit score? ›

As someone with a 650 credit score, you are firmly in the “fair” territory of credit. You can usually qualify for financial products like a mortgage or car loan, but you will likely pay higher interest rates than someone with a better credit score. The "good" credit range starts at 690.

You'll typically need a credit score of 620 to finance a home purchase. However, some lenders may offer mortgage loans to borrowers with scores as low as 500. Whether you qualify for a specific loan type also depends on personal factors like your debt-to-income ratio (DTI), loan-to-value ratio (LTV) and income.

Similarly, if you pay off a credit card debt and close the account entirely, your scores could drop. This is because your total available credit is lowered when you close a line of credit, which could result in a higher credit utilization ratio.

No. Fortunately, no one's credit score can equal zero – the range for FICO scores is 300-850 – and even people with poor or bad credit have a credit score of at least 300. A “no credit score” means there is insufficient information for a credit score calculator to compute a score.

Credit scores can drop due to a variety of reasons, including late or missed payments, changes to your credit utilization rate, a change in your credit mix, closing older accounts (which may shorten your length of credit history overall), or applying for new credit accounts.

According to a report from Experian®, the average FICO credit score in America was 714 in 2022. So 600 falls below that national average. On the VantageScore range, the company says 600 scores are considered poor.