Overview

• Research by TotallyMoney shows that borrowers with poor credit scores can pay up to £13,541 extra interest on a £10,000 loan and £6,678 more on a £5,000 loan over three years.
• Only one in four consumers have checked their credit reports in the past four years, and one third of those found errors that could be corrected to improve their score.
• Lenders only guarantee advertised rates to 51% of approved applicants, which forces many lower-scoring consumers to pay above-advertised rates or resort to risky high-cost lending options.
• Financial experts recommend using free services from Experian, Equifax or TransUnion to check reports every six months and dispute any inaccuracies swiftly.
• Emerging credit-building services such as rent reporting through CreditLadder and locked-savings schemes like Loqbox help borrowers raise their scores and access cheaper loans.