Should we remortgage or clean up a credit rating?

Q My husband and I have a £126,000 mortgage on a house worth more than £300,000, which we bought in 1996. We have a two-year fixed-rate deal of 6.44%, which is costing us £900 a month and ends this summer. My partner's credit rating is not good, as he has made a couple of late payments on credit cards in the past few months. We would like to remortgage on to a better deal, as well as consolidate debts of around £15,000. Is it worth trying to get a new deal now (we can get out of ours for £171), or should we wait a few months while we clean up my husband's credit rating? How long will it take for a record of the late payments to disappear? SM A Credit accounts record whether you have made your credit repayments on time over the past 36 months, with details of the last 12 months of payments shown in full. So to answer your last question first it will take three years for your husband's late payments to drop off his credit record. But the fact your husband has been behind with his repayments doesn't necessarily mean you will have trouble getting a remortgage. A lot depends on how late the payments were and what amounts were involved. Even so, rather than try to remortgage before your current deal comes to an end I would concentrate on improving your husband's punctuality in making repayments. At the very least he should consider setting up a direct debit to repay the minimum amount due each month, which will at least make sure his credit account does not show him as paying late.