73% of People Don't Know How Long 'Black Marks' on a Credit File Take to be Forgotten

IPSWICH, England, February 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Adverse credit mortgage specialists Just Mortgage Brokers conducted research to help understand the extent of misconceptions regarding some of the main factors behind "bad credit". Just asked 500 members of the public how long they thought missed mortgage payments, CCJs and IVAs lasted on their credit history. The key finding being that:

73% of people don't know how 'black marks' on a credit files takes to be forgotten by credit agencies.

70% of people think that credit 'black marks' are worse than they actually are.

When splitting the results for men and women, Just reported two distinct themes. Firstly, female respondents generally had a better understanding of how long credit black marks last. 31% of women knew the correct answers, whereas only 24% of men did.

In addition to this, male respondents were consistently more pessimistic with their responses throughout. 66% of women think bad credit is worse that it is, with 73% of men thinking it's worse.

When considering missed mortgage payments the survey showed that 51% of people thought a default never leaves your credit file. Only 26% of respondents knew that it was in fact 6 years, and 65% of respondents think a missed mortgage payment is worse than it is.

The research also quizzed for the comparable knowledge on County Court Judgment, or CCJs. Once again, people's understanding of CCJ's was confused, with 71% of people not knowing how long a CCJ takes to be forgotten.

20% of those surveyed thought that an IVA would take at least 15 years to be forgotten from a credit report, with 69% of respondents believing that it lasts longer than it does.

Carl Shave of Just Mortgage Brokers had this to say, "We knew that perceptions around "bad credit" were often very pessimistic, but the results were surprising even to us. The key message here is that black marks are not as bad as people think. With sensible money management and specific credit repair steps, credit scores can be pulled back on track."

The more detailed research can be found here - http://www.justmortgagebrokers.co.uk/blog/bad-credit-perceptions/