<prompt> Human: Im currently 24 and Im finally financially settled. Earning a decent wage 40k pa and able to start saving for a deposit on a house and looking to buy in a couple of years.The problem is however that I was a bit of a twat a few ears ago. Student overdrafts, credit cards and payday loans have left me with a credit score of about 200 according to experian, currently sitting on about 12k of debt but should have that paid off by mid 2014 at my current rate.Financially Im not too bad off and once I am debt free with my partners income as well we will have about 1,800 a month in spare money after living expenses. The thing is though even with all of this will my credit score ever recover? Im worried that being irresponsible in the past has destroyed my future. Can I recover from this mess up and if so how long will it take and what can I do to help?  <response>: I was a bit of a twat a few ears agoI wonder how many ears you wasted :-I still have to start googling, but I assume that in the UK, as in the US and as in the Netherlands the country I live in, credit scores do repair themselves over time as there is an expiration date on your bad marks. In the US, bad marks will often leave the report after seven years; in the Netherlands most leave your report after five years. The general feeling is apparently, that a person fucking his credit up shouldnt be punished for that for the rest of his life. So I assume that in the UK, bad items will also fall off after a certain period of time, after which your credit score will climb. You can probably stimulate this climbing by paying off your debts indeed, and by using your credit wisely from now on no more late payments, defaults, etc.EDIT: Looks like closed accounts stay on your report for six years in the UK. Source . So any bad items should also drop off six years after last activity. 