We spoke to Kenneth, a few months into his Loqbox journey, to see how it’s had a positive impact on his life.

Heyn Kenneth. Great to talk to you. First off, I’d like to know a bit more about you. What sort of things do you get up to?

I’m 42 and I came to the UK in October last year. I love hiking. Britain’s great for that with all the green open space.

And what do you do for a living?

I’m an architectural technician.

Can you tell us a bit about how you found Loqbox and your experience of it so far?

So, in the Caribbean, we don’t have credit agencies that are as strict as they are here. I moved to the Caribbean when I was four years old and, now I’ve come back to the UK, I’ve been trying to find ways to build my credit score. I did some research online for building credit about three or four months ago, which is how I found Loqbox.

Have you seen your credit score change at all?

Oh yeah, for sure. Obviously, they didn’t have anything to base it on, but it’s been growing the last time I checked.

The problem with no credit is it’s like what comes first, the chicken or the egg? As you can’t get one before the other, and if there isn’t anyone willing to give that opportunity to build credit, how can you build credit? It’s something that’s proved a bit difficult.

What other financial services do you use, if any?

I signed up with ClearScore and Experian – the free ones. I’ve read that making too many credit applications can really damage your score, so last month I made a number of applications before I realised that you can actually damage your score through the eligibility checker. I learned that the hard way as I saw my credit score drop, but since then I have seen my score increase in excess of 33 points each month, almost every month.

What did you think of Loqbox at first?

I read a lot about it and lots of reviews online as well because, at the end of the day, if it’s not reputable or doesn’t do what it says, it defeats the point of trying it in the first place. To be honest, what I like most about Loqbox is that it helps you save.

Is there anything that you need credit for or are saving for?

One of the issues I have is that, because I migrated here, my family is still back home. So I need to bring them out here and, because the tickets are pretty expensive, I was looking to get a small personal loan to help with that, which has been hard without a credit score as everything is linked to it.

So, the way Loqbox works is it’s essentially a loan of an amount that you choose, and after 12 months you’ve effectively paid off your loan. Is that how you understand it working or is this news to you?

Initially, I wasn’t under the impression that it would work like a loan per se, but I guess in terms of credit it would show up that way as it shows you are paying a debt. I understand that. One thing I noticed at the start was how it showed up on my bank account. Because I didn’t know who ‘DDC Financial’ were. I had to look them up, so maybe that would also help other people understand how it works.

This post was written and compiled by the credit experts behind Loqbox – a completely free way to build your credit history by saving a little each month. To sign up or read more about the clever way Loqbox works, head to Loqbox.co.uk.

This is part of our Loqbox Stories blog series – unlocking the secrets of the financial system, two minutes at a time.

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