Your credit score decides more than yes or no, at some lenders it sets your rate tier, your maximum LVR, and whether a computer or a human reads your file. The good news: scores move faster than most people expect, in both directions.
What actually moves your score
- Repayment history: 24 months of on-time payments on every account, reported monthly. One missed personal-loan payment lingers for two years.
- Credit enquiries: every application (cards, BNPL, car finance, loan pre-approvals) leaves a mark. Several in six months reads as distress.
- Defaults and judgments: five years on file, even after payment.
- Limits, not balances: a $25,000 card limit counts against you even at zero balance.
What score do you need?
There’s no single pass mark, each bureau scales differently and each lender scores internally on top. Roughly: 700+ (Equifax) is comfortable, 600–700 is fine with a clean story, below 550 usually means a specialist lender at a higher rate until the file heals.
Fixing it fast: the 90-day plan
- Get your free reports (Equifax, Experian, illion) and dispute any errors, wrong defaults come off surprisingly often.
- Stop all new credit applications immediately.
- Close unused cards and cut limits, this works within a reporting cycle or two.
- Set every repayment to direct debit; the streak starts now.
Bruised file? There’s still a path
Specialist lenders write loans for borrowers with defaults or discharged bankruptcies at rates a tier or two higher, a bridge, not a destination. Hold for a year or two of clean history, then refinance to mainstream pricing. The mistake is applying scattergun to mainstream banks first and collecting enquiries that make everything worse.
Nathan checks your file against lender score cut-offs before anything is lodged, so your enquiry lands where it will be approved.
Book a free credit review →