CCJs, Bankruptcy and Your Credit Score

16th May 2025

If you have a County Court Judgment (CCJ), an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA), or have ever been declared bankrupt, it can take time to remove these details from your credit score.  Although these are serious matters, there are things you can do to improve the situation and build your credit score to be as good as it can possibly be.

What is a CCJ?

A County Court Judgment (CCJ) is issued by a court when you are found to owe money and ordered to pay it back. A CCJ can harm your credit score, making it difficult to get loans, credit cards, mortgages, or even increase your overdraft limit. In some cases, you can ask the court to "set aside" a CCJ if you can prove you don’t owe the money.

A CCJ can be removed from your credit file if you pay the debt within one month of the judgment. However, simply paying off the debt isn’t enough—you must apply to the court to have the CCJ removed from the Register of Judgments, Orders, and Fines. This involves obtaining a Certificate of Satisfaction or Certificate of Cancellation, which costs £14. After that, you can still request a certificate to show it’s been paid in full, which could help improve your credit score although the CCJ won’t disappear. After six years, the CCJ will automatically be removed from your credit file.

A CCJ is not a criminal record, though it can lead to legal proceedings if you don’t pay the money back after the court has ordered you to do so.

Impact of Bankruptcy

Being made bankrupt is a much more serious situation, and involves the court looking at what you owe, and to who, and declaring that you do not have enough money to cover your debts. You cannot remove bankruptcy from your credit file for six years, but most bankruptcies are discharged within a year. This means that you are free from the restrictions imposed by the court, such as control of your bank account and how you spend your money. When discharged, the record of bankruptcy will still appear, but the discharge status will show, which can improve your chances of accessing credit, but you can expect to pay more interest.

Is an IVA Better Than Bankruptcy?

An Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) may be a better option than bankruptcy if you want more control over your assets. While an IVA doesn’t clear your debts in the same way as being made bankrupt, it strikes a deal with the companies you own money to and usually allows you to keep your home if you have a mortgage.  At the end of the IVA period your debts should be cleared, and you can start to rebuild your credit score over time.

There are no quick fixes to rebuilding your credit score after bankruptcy, CCJs or IVAs, but over time your score should recover. If you are struggling with debt, get advice from a financial advisor or debt charity to get on top of things before it gets to the stage of legal action.