Why your credit file is thin
Three credit reference agencies, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, keep a credit file on you: your accounts, cards, loans, phone contracts and whether you’ve paid on time. Lenders use your file, with their own scoring, to decide whether to lend to you.
If you’ve never borrowed, or you’ve just moved to the UK, your file has little in it, and lenders can’t tell how you’d handle credit. That’s called a thin file. You build it by borrowing a little and paying it back on time. A credit history from another country usually doesn’t carry over.
A debit card doesn’t help: it spends your own money, so there’s nothing to report.
Step 1: Register to vote
Being on the electoral roll at your current address helps lenders confirm your name and address. You can register online at GOV.UK. You can register if you’re:
- a British or Irish citizen, or
- a qualifying Commonwealth citizen with permission to be in the UK (or who doesn’t need it), or
- in England and Northern Ireland, a citizen of Denmark, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal or Spain with permission to stay, or another EU citizen who had that permission by 31 December 2020. In Scotland and Wales, anyone with permission to be in the UK can register.
If you can’t register, everything else in this guide still builds your file.
Step 2: Check your credit file free
You have a legal right to your statutory credit report free from each of the three agencies: look for “statutory report” on their websites. They also let you see your file free online. Check it for mistakes, such as an address you’ve never lived at, and ask the agency to correct them.
Step 3: Your first credit
| Option | How it works | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Credit-builder card | A card for people with little or poor credit history, with a low limit. | Interest rates are much higher than on most cards, so pay the full balance every month. |
| Phone contract | A monthly mobile contract in your name. | Paying it on time shows on your file. A missed payment does too. |
| Rent reporting | A service reports your rent payments to the agencies, for example Experian’s Rental Exchange. | Rent isn’t on your file unless it’s reported. It builds a history without taking on debt. |
| Joint account | A bank account or loan in two names. | It links your file to the other person’s, so their missed payments can affect you. Choose carefully. |
One or two of these is plenty. Applying for lots of credit at once doesn’t build your file faster.
Step 4: Use it well
- Pay by Direct Debit, for the full balance if you can, so you never miss a payment and pay no interest.
- Use a small part of your limit. Lenders like to see balances well below the limit.
- Use eligibility checkers before you apply. They use a soft search, which only you can see and which doesn’t affect your score. A real application leaves a hard search that other lenders can see.
Try it: how much of your limit you’re using, and how lenders see it.
30%
Good
Under about a third is fine for most scores.
A rule of thumb: scoring models differ, and paying on time matters most.
How long things stay on your file
- Missed or late payments: six years.
- Defaults: six years from the date of the default, even if you pay it off.
- County court judgments (CCJs) in England and Wales: six years. If you pay the full amount within one month, you can have it removed.
- Hard searches: 12 months. Several in a short time can lower your score.
Buy now pay later
Since 15 July 2026, most buy now pay later is regulated by the FCA: lenders have to check you can afford the repayments before you sign up, and contact you if you miss one. Treat it like any other credit: only use it for things you can pay for on time.
Mistakes to avoid
- Missing a payment. It stays on your file for six years.
- Applying for lots of credit at once. Each application leaves a hard search for 12 months.
- Being linked to someone with poor credit through a joint account. When a joint account closes, you can ask the agencies to remove the link.
- Paying someone to fix your credit. You can check and correct your file yourself, free.
Learn more
See credit scores explained for what lenders look at and how to raise your score, and how to make a budget to make sure you can pay your card in full. Checking your own file never lowers your score.