Are Credit Scores real or nonsense? How to make yourself more attractive to lenders
The Martin Lewis Podcast
BBC
4.4 • 929 Ratings
🗓️ 4 December 2025
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Martin Lewis goes through everything you need to know about credit scores – including if they’re actually real. He also explains how you can make yourself appear more attractive to lenders, including the most important factors they look for. Plus, what the budget means for your energy bills, you Tell Us when you finally felt financially grown up, and Mastermind is all about when a direct debit isn’t actually a direct debit.
If you want to ask Martin a question, you now can! His Question Time podcast lets you ask Martin absolutely anything and everything (within reason!) – so if you’ve always wanted to know his favourite motorway, what his skincare routine looks like, or have a very complicated question about your finances, email it to MartinLewisPodcast@bbc.co.uk.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:08.2 | Fixing compared to staying on the price cap is still a no-brainer. |
| 0:12.7 | Credit scores are not real. |
| 0:14.4 | Mine is 975 and I've checked it and I check it religiously. |
| 0:18.6 | Thank you very much. |
| 0:19.6 | You need credit to get credit, but how do you get credit when you don't have credit? So it has to be done very tightly to the recipe. Hello, I'm Martin Lewis and this is the cunningly named the Martin Lewis podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. Now, usually much of it comes from my BBC Radio 5 live show with Adrian Charles, but there's also lots of bonus money-saving tips just for you, lucky, lucky podcast listeners. |
| 0:41.4 | In today's pod, do you actually have a credit score? |
| 0:45.2 | Spoiler? No, you don't. |
| 0:46.7 | But I'm going to talk you through how lenders really decide whether they want to lend to you or not, |
| 0:51.5 | what the most important factors are, how to get paying rent on |
| 0:54.9 | time to count, and a lot more tips to boost your financial attractiveness. |
| 1:00.9 | The government says energy bills will be reduced in average £150 due to the budget, |
| 1:05.8 | but how will that work if you're on a fix? This week's tell us is all about when did you |
| 1:10.3 | first feel financially |
| 1:11.8 | like you were a grown-up. And my money mastermind this week, when is a direct debit, not a direct |
| 1:18.2 | debit? Play the theme tune. I got meals. I got paid. So I'm going to work for a world. I'm going to work for it. |
| 1:29.3 | I got to pay. |
| 1:31.3 | I've got to feed. So I'm going to make sure everybody is. |
| 1:35.3 | So I've come announced they're raising energy bills to fund investment. |
| 1:38.3 | What does that mean for our energy bills now in the aftermath of the budget? |
| 1:42.3 | Okay, so there's lots of complicated things going on, |
| 1:45.2 | and I'd like to go back to basics. |
... |
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