'We used our rent payments to help us get a mortgage and buy first home'

Getting on the ladder can be a stressful task - not only in terms of saving, but also getting approved for your .

But one couple explained how they used their rent payments to improve their credit file - and secure their first home. Piya and Sean, both aged 22, had to work on their credit worthiness, not because of any missed payments or defaults - but because they had never used a credit card before or taken out a loan.

If you have no credit history, it can be harder to get approved for a mortgage as lenders are unable to see if you’re likely to keep up repayments. This is when Sean discovered CreditLadder, which works by sharing information about your rent payments to Experian, Equifax, TransUnion and Crediva.

This means if you pay your rent on time, this can improve the look of your credit file to lenders as it shows you make regular payments - but missed or late payments will also show up, which can damage how creditworthy you appear. CreditLadder will report your rent payments to just one credit reference agency for free, or it costs £8 a month to report to all four.

It's worth noting that no one has a universal credit score, as each referencing agency scores you differently - but you do have a credit file, which shows your financial history. Some lenders also only use information from one credit agency, while others will use multiple sources.

Piya and Sean met at the age of 18 and started saving for a house deposit in September 2021 while privately renting. They decided to work on their credit files after about six months of saving, with the pair putting away between £800 to £1,000 a month into their house deposit fund.

Piya, who works in risk mitigation in insurance said: “We were so stressed about our credit scores. It seemed crazy to us that tracking rental payments wasn’t already a done thing. Why are these companies tracking my phone bill every month, but not my rent?

Sean, who works in the , added: “We were tracking our credit score every day with websites like ClearScore. We were obsessed with it for a bit. It took just those few months, and then it shot up like 60 points. It made a huge impact. We were just so shocked that we’d never heard of CreditLadder before.”

It took them between 18 months to two years to save up a deposit of £13,500 for a £231,995 property in Leicester. The pair applied for a mortgage from lender Tembo in July 2023 and moved into their new home in November of that year.

Piya said: “Having a dual income was the key for us. We recognise that not everyone is in the same position as us in being able to do that, and I’m glad there were two of us, because it would be so hard to do it alone.” She added: “We stepped into the house and just knew. It was the perfect size. The kitchen was perfect. It was just the perfect space to wine and dine and entertain.”

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