Hello cp1872 and congratulations to you.

Have you received your discharge yet? I wouldn't look into your credit file too much until your creditors have had the chance to update it after that.

Using some credit is likely to be helpful, but you'll need to weigh up the possible negatives as well. Avoid payday loans as they'll typically do more harm than good even if you do repay them on time.

Saving the biggest deposit you can will help with getting a mortgage, as will the time taken to save. If you haven't read it before this article might provide some useful pointers:

These topics are covered further at:

https://www.trust-deed.co.uk/repair-your-credit-rating.html

Thank you, I will have a look at this.

I will need to check the letters and see if I have been discharged.

Hi cp1872

If you check in the Register of Insolvencies link via the Accountant in Bankruptcies website, it will give you all the information and correct dates etc.

Mark

Just used Experian. My credit score is 438.

It states I still owe £2,300 to my car finance loan which my TD took on, saying it is 6 payments late.

It has also defaulted against all the things I have just paid off with my Trust Deed - is this normal?

All of this is so confusing for me at the moment, I just want to start re-building it all.

I was discharged in July 2013 and some of the debts which were included in my trust deed still show as defaulted / a balance owing. You can't do anything about the default listing - that will stay on for 6 years, but banks will clear the balance if you ask them - some do it as a matter of course promptly after your discharge, others need gentle encouragement....

RBS cleared my balance 7 days after I asked them, Barclays and Halifax are dragging their heels a little, but I'm on the case....

Good luck and well done for clearing your trust deed.

Thanks tanyadm.

I know it's going to be a long road, but is there anything I can do in the short term to improve my credit rating?

Also, some of the "default" accounts say the balance is "settled". Would this mean it has been updated following completion of the trust deed?

And would I be best contacting the companies where the balance is still an outstanding amount?

And final thing...for now...I have a mobile phone contract for £500 and another for £100 that has been outstanding and was obviously not included in my trust deed. Do I need to pay these to repair my credit rating? One of them is from 2007.

Hi cp1872.

Formal default notices should be marked as being "satisfied" or "partially satisfied" once you are discharged. Contact any lenders that haven't done this to seek an update.

Balances included in the trust deed should be set to zero. Again you'll need to contact any creditors that haven't done this.

If the mobile phone debts existed at the time that you signed your trust deed they no longer exist - they were included in the trust deed even if you forgot to mention them. That's why trust deeds are advertised in the Edinburgh Gazette - to enable creditors that were missed out to come forwards. Again you may need to contact them to get the file updated.

That's excellent news, thank you for the help.

Long road to recovery but will be worth it. I am just saving up the money I paid towards my TD at the moment so finally have a financially sensible head on my shoulders for the first time in my life.

That's great cp1872.

It must be reassuring to know you have a cash buffer in case something goes wrong in the future.