Opening a new credit account can affect your credit score, usually temporarily. This is because a hard search (also known as a credit application search) will be added to your credit report. This new credit account will lower the average age of your credit agreements and could affect your credit use (or utilisation) – these are both looked at when Equifax work out your credit score.
If you manage your new account responsibly by making your payments on time and in full, this should have a positive impact on your credit score over time.
We recommend using between 10% and 70% of your credit limit at any time (this is known as your credit usage), and spreading it evenly across all your cards.
For example, if your limit is £1000, you should aim to use between £100 and £700 per month.
If any of the information on your report is missing or incorrect, we want to help you get this sorted, so that you have the most accurate credit score. You can raise a dispute with Equifax to fix the incorrect information.