CCJ from three years ago
A hypothetical example showing how the age of a County Court Judgement changes what a lender is willing to consider.
Read the scenario →See how a lender might read a case like yours
Each example here is hypothetical, not a real application or a quote from any lender. It walks through one type of adverse credit, a CCJ, a default, an IVA, and shows what a specialist lender is likely to focus on, and what could tip the decision either way.
What these examples actually show
A hypothetical worked example takes one type of adverse credit and one set of circumstances, then walks through how a lender would likely read it. It turns an abstract rule into something concrete: instead of saying "the age of a default matters", the example says something like "a default from three years ago" and shows what changes if that becomes two years, or five.
Why hypothetical, and what that means for you
Every example here illustrates a mechanism. No lender is named, and no figure should be read as a rate or fee you'd actually be offered. Real underwriting depends on the individual application, on the lender's own criteria at the time you apply, and on details this site has no way of seeing, so an example can show you how a factor tends to be weighed without telling you what will happen to your own application.
How to read one
Each example separates what's fixed from what isn't. The date a CCJ was registered, or the amount it was for, can't change by the time you apply, so a lender simply takes those as given. Your payment conduct since then, whether the debt has been satisfied, and how well you've prepared the application are different, because those are things you still have some influence over between now and applying.
Read for the pattern rather than the numbers. If an example describes a satisfied default from four years ago alongside a steady payment history since, the useful part isn't the specific figures used. It's the relationship between age, satisfaction, and how a lender's credit tier tends to respond to both.
Where to go next
The adverse credit guides go further into age, size, and satisfaction status for each type. If you're not sure which situation applies to you, the eligibility tool works through your own circumstances step by step, though like any tool of this kind it can give a wrong answer if the details you enter don't match your file, and it won't tell you what any lender will decide.
Six scenarios, worked through
Each scenario below is a hypothetical example showing how a lender might weigh a particular set of circumstances, not a prediction for any real application.
Default size and satisfaction
A hypothetical case walking through how a default's size and whether it's satisfied affect a lender's view of it.
Read the scenario →Applying during a DMP
A hypothetical scenario looking at what a lender checks when a debt management plan is still active.
Read the scenario →IVA nearing completion
A hypothetical walkthrough of how timing, during an Individual Voluntary Arrangement or after it ends, shapes an application.
Read the scenario →Rebuilding after repossession
A hypothetical example tracing what a specialist lender wants to see in the years following a repossession.
Read the scenario →Missed payments, then recovery
A hypothetical case showing how steady recent conduct can offset older missed payments in a lender's assessment.
Read the scenario →None of these examples is your situation, but one of them is probably close
These examples show how lenders tend to reason, not what any specific lender will decide for you. The eligibility tool asks about your own circumstances and points you toward the guide that matches.