Maintaining the health of your credit profile is not an exact science. The best approach to improving your credit rating is to engage in best practice.

If you are not on the electoral role then it is unlikely that you will get credit. Write to the local council to ensure you are on the role, do not wait for the annual forms to arrive at your door.

If you are not eligible to vote (Mainly foreign nationals) then send the credit agencies proof of residency and ask them to make a note on your credit report to verify this.

Lots of credit searches on your credit report in a short amount of time, hurt your credit rating. Put space in between your applications for anything that will initiate a search on your credit profile. Applications for credit cards, car insurance, mobile phone contracts and others will all require searches.

A change of address also disrupts your credit profile so make any important applications prior to moving. Plus, you will always score better when your earning, so if you anticipate time off, maternity leave or suspect redundancy apply before hand. Never lie on any applications, if asked.

The idea of credit scoring is to give lenders an idea of your likely behaviour. Therefore if you have no credit history, having not had so much as a credit card you may be rejected. Therefore those with poor and no pre-existing credit histories should go about building a good one.

A great way to improve or establish your credit profile is by getting the right type of credit card. Use the card perfectly, staying within your limit and always paying the full amount owed on time.

There are many credit card comparison websites out there that will help you find the best deals currently available.

Always, ALWAYS try to stick to the payment plan for your financial agreements. At least, make the minimum repayments. Credit cards, bills, car insurance, your mobile phone bill all need to be maintained. Missing or defaulting on payments once or twice could cost you for years to come.

If you are really struggling contact your lender or company. Usually they will do their best to help, and may put you on a payment plan to further break down payments. Changing your repayment schedule is always better than having CCJ's taken out against you.

Marrying or living with somebody who has a poor credit history should not affect your own credit rating. However if you are financially linked to that person on any type of product then it can have an impact. If one partner has a poor credit history then do your best to keep you finances separate, as to allow access to credit for at least one of you.

There are only 2 products that can deem you financially linked to somebody else and those are, mortgages and joint accounts. Credit cards are technically in the name of only one person, although another may have a card to access the account.

If you split up with someone with which you were financially linked via a mortgage or account then be sure to write to the credit reference agencies and ask for a "disassociation" notice to be placed on your file. This stops the ex-partners credit history affecting yours in the future.

If you own a home rather than rent, if you are employed rather than self employed, you are more likely to be accpeted. Being with an employer, bank or at an address for a significant amount of time can all help. Smaller details too, like putting a landline number instead of a mobile number on any applications for credit will also help.

Check the address on any open accounts you may have. These can be mobile phone contracts, loan repayments or any other type of financial agreement. For example loans repaid via direct debit usually require no monthly postal correspondence. Have you moved house while repaying your loan? Have you updated the address on your account?

Follow this scenario;

You apply for credit and get rejected, so you apply elsewhere and are rejected again. Now, you check your credit profile and find an error which you blame for the rejections. Error corrected, you apply again. Again you are REJECTED. This time its not because of your poor credit history but because of all the recent searches!

So if you are rejected once and believe you have good credit;

• Immediately check you credit file is correct
• Have any errors adjusted by contacting the credit reference agencies
• Apply again ensuring that you allow sufficient time, if there have been a number of recent searches

Having too much credit, even if it unused credit can cause problems. If you have a number of unused credit cards, cancel the ones you do not use.

Long standing bank accounts which have a good credit history can be beneficial to your credit rating, so leave these open.

Any outstanding debts that you carry is part of the information accessible to lenders. In general you will be better to pay off any existing debts with savings.