Tips on building credit in UK?

Anyone have any tips on building credit up in the UK?  We're hoping to buy a home in the next year (I'm a US cit and DH is UK) - do we have any hope of getting enough credit by then??

how long as your UK husband lived in the UK?  how's HIS credit?

He's been in the US these past 9 years, and now has only been back for few days. However, at least with a couple of his banks he's kept a UK address.

in the US you can request your credit report from the agencies... you have to jump through a few hoops to get it for free but it can be done.

can you do the same here to check his credit history?

we'll try that and see what it says.

The way I have been trying to build credit for myself is doing things like mail order catalogues.  I do a lot of shopping from Simply Be.  All I did was call up and request a catalogue.  When I ordered my first thing and paid for it they gave me a credit limit of £85. I used that credit and because it was so small was able to pay it off the next month.  Then they upped my credit to £200, then £500 and now I have a credit limit of £1000!  Course I don't intend to use that much but it's nice because that way it is a starting place for me.  I think someone else mentioned another catalogue company they order from as well.  When I met my DH his credit wasn't all that good because he was a bit careless when he was a student at uni but before we were married I helped him get things sorted and paid off.  (not helped as in me paying but as setting him a budget and setting priority bills to be paid first). That helped him a lot and he has been able to slowly clear up some of his past "mistakes".

I started with a current account and a credit card, then got a couple of store accounts. But the thing that has helped the most was buying a car.

Did you buy a car with a loan? If so, how were you able to take out a loan?

We decided to buy a new car 'cause Kia were doing a special with VERY low interest and a pound deposit. I didn't qualify for a loan through Kia but they sub-contract with a more high-risk loan provider who did qualify me (I think it was Black Horse). So the interest rate went up a bit, but was still reasonable. We specifically bought it in my name only to help pump up my credit rating....

The way I have been trying to build credit for myself is doing things like mail order catalogues.  I do a lot of shopping from Simply Be.  All I did was call up and request a catalogue.

Whispersarah

I hope this does not sound stupid . What is mail order catalogues and how do i go about doing it. Please can you give me a link to start.

OK, here's my dumb question regarding building credit:

In the US, if you want a contract cellphone but don't have any credit, you can put down a deposit ($100-200) that you receive back after 6 months of "good" bill paying behavior. Anyone know of a UK mobile company that has a similar policy? I've poked around the websites and not found anything, and I'm a little too shy to go into a shop and ask outright.

I dunno about that, but if you aren't planning on using a mobile a lot, it's generally cheaper to use pay-as-you-go.

I had to pay up front a deposit for my pay monthly phone the first time...I got it back a year later and haven't had to pay a deposit since then...having a pay monthly phone also helps build credit.

I hope this does not sound stupid . What is mail order catalogues and how do i go about doing it. Please can you give me a link to start.

I got started on the 'slippery slope' with Freemans catalogue:

https://www.freemans.com/web/main/getcat_other.asp?name=DEFAULT

Thank you Q-G. Will sign up with them immediately.