Turned down for
a CCJ or adverse credit
An old, satisfied CCJ matters far less than most people fear. A recent or unsatisfied one, or several, is a different matter. What carries most weight is not the judgment at all: it is how your bank account has behaved over the last three months.
No credit check to enquire.
What lenders actually weigh
- How recent. Within the last twelve months is a serious obstacle. Three or four years ago, with clean trading since, is often survivable
- Satisfied or not. Paying a judgment does not remove it from the register for six years, but it is recorded as satisfied, and that genuinely changes how it reads
- One or several. A single judgment reads as a dispute or an oversight. A pattern reads as a way of operating
- The last three months of statements. Returned direct debits, unauthorised overdraft use and bounced payments do more damage than one historic judgment, because they describe the present
Check the file before you apply again
Business credit files carry errors more often than people assume, and a satisfied judgment still showing as outstanding is both common and free to correct. Check with the agency the lender used before you make another application, because a correction can change the answer without changing anything about your business.
What still works
Several lenders weigh trading and turnover more heavily than credit history, and one is built around card takings rather than accounts. It narrows the choice and it usually costs more, which is the honest trade.
Expect to be asked for a personal guarantee, and expect adverse credit to make that non-negotiable where it might otherwise have been discussed. What a guarantee commits you to.
Paying within a month
In England and Wales, if a CCJ is paid in full within one month of the judgment, you can ask the court to remove it from the Register of Judgments altogether rather than have it sit there for six years marked as paid. If a judgment is only days or weeks old, paying it before that month is up is the most valuable single thing you can do for the file.
After the month has gone, pay it and then apply to the court for a certificate of satisfaction, which updates the register. Do not assume the court or the agencies will notice the payment on their own.
The company’s judgment or yours
A judgment against the company sits on the company’s file. A judgment against you sits on yours. On a small facility a lender will usually read both, because a director’s file is looked at whenever a guarantee is involved, so a personal judgment from years ago can still come up on a business application.
Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own systems for recording court debts, and the names differ. Lenders read them in much the same way: how recent, how many, and whether they have been paid.
Common questions
Will a lender still see a CCJ once it has been paid?
Yes, for six years from the date of the judgment, marked as satisfied. After six years it drops off the register and the credit files. Paying it does not hide it. It changes how it reads, which is the point.
Can a CCJ be removed if I never knew about the claim?
Possibly. If the claim went to an old address and you had no chance to respond, you can apply to the court to have the judgment set aside. It is a court application with a fee, and you need to act promptly once you find out. If it succeeds, the judgment comes off the register. Take advice, because this is a legal process rather than a credit file correction.
Does an IVA or a past bankruptcy affect a business loan?
Yes, and usually more than a CCJ. A director with a current IVA will find most of the unsecured market closed, because the guarantee they would give has little behind it, and an undischarged bankrupt cannot act as a company director without the court’s permission. Once an arrangement is complete and some years have passed the picture improves, but it narrows the choice for longer than a single judgment does.
Find out what is still placeable
We will tell you honestly, and without a search on your file.
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