Loqbox is a subscription and savings account that can help improve your credit score – here’s how it works
Loqbox is a set of tools designed to improve your credit score without having to take on any actual debt. It’s an interesting financial product as it’s not exactly a loan, but it’s designed to give you the benefits of repaying one on your credit report. Here’s how it works, how much it costs you and why you might choose to use it.
Some articles on the site contain affiliate links, which provide a small commission to help fund our work. However, they won’t affect the price you pay or our editorial independence. Read more here.
What is Loqbox?
Loqbox is a subscription-based service designed to help you build your credit score with a three-pronged attack: paying off a debt, building up savings and by having your rent payments reported to credit reference agencies.
It aims to solve the problem that those with thin or non-existent credit files struggle to get a credit card or loan in the first place. Signing up for Loqbox lets you take out something that technically qualifies as a debt, but works far more like a savings account in practice.
The regular payments you make can then be used to show that you’re financially responsible and can pay back debts in general. This, theoretically, will improve your credit score and give you access to better rates on credit products like mortgages or loans.
There are three different prongs to Loqbox, all available with the subscription. You can also add “Bolt-ons” to your membership — more on these below.
Loqbox Grow
Loqbox Grow, lets you build up a credit history without taking on any actual debt — more on how this works below. Your payments towards the debt are reported to all three credit reference agencies.
Loqbox Save
With this option, you can save between £20 and £200 a month. Your savings goal is set up as an interest-free finance agreement, which means that the savings you make are reported to credit reference agencies. At the end of the 12 month term, you get all the money back.
Loqbox Rent
This option lets you report your rental payments to Experian.
How does Loqbox work?
Each of the different features of Loqbox works differently, but they all aim to get a record of you making payments on-time and in-full to credit reference agencies.
Grow
With the “Grow” option, Loqbox effectively sets up an artificial £250 credit product that’s reported to credit reference agencies — your weekly £2.99 subscription goes to “paying this back”. However, there’s no loan – Loqbox doesn’t give you £250 on sign up (as you’d get if you did take out a £250 loan), so it’s effectively just evidence that you’re consistently making on-time payments.
If, like us, you’ve done the maths and you’re confused about how 52 payments of £2.99 can fully pay off a £250 loan over a year (if you didn’t do the maths, it only totals £155.48), here’s how it really works.
Each month, the £2.99 per week (and the cost of bolt ons) is accumulated, similar to if you spent it on a credit card. At the end of the month, you’re charged for the amount that you accumulated. So if the month was 4 weeks long, that’s £11.96. This shows on your credit file as you only using around £12 of a total available credit of £250, giving you a tiny credit utilisation of just 4.8%, which can do you favours with your credit report.
Save
With the “Save” feature, you can save between £20 and £200 a month over a year. There’s no interest paid on the savings, but your savings goal over a year (which is calculated as 12 times the amount you commit to save) is set up as a finance agreement, so Loqbox reports your savings to credit reference agencies.
Rent
And finally, the “Rent” option lets you connect your rent payments to Loqbox, which means that they can be reported to Experian. Rent is a huge sum every month, so this shows lenders that you’re capable of paying regular payments on-time.
It works using Open Banking, which allows you to link your Loqbox account to your bank account to track the payments. Loqbox also says that only on-time payments are reported, so if you make late payments, they won’t negatively impact your score.
It should be added that ExperianBoost (a free product from the credit reference agency Experian) also lets you do this, as well as adding in things like council tax and other regular payments to your credit score.
Bolt-ons
You can add additional bolt-ons onto your membership. These come at an additional cost and can help you grow your credit score faster by giving you a higher “credit limit” and letting you save a larger amount with the savings feature. You can also access its financial wellbeing app called “Nooli” with the higher tiers.
There are three tiers to choose between, ranging from an extra £5 to £20 a month. This is in addition to your weekly subscription fee.
| Tier | Credit Limit | Nooli access | Monthly saving limit | Price |
| Bronze | £500 | Discounted access | Up to £300 | £5 a month |
| Silver | £1,000 | Included | Up to £400 | £10 a month |
| Gold | £2,000 | Included | Up to £500 | £20 a month |
What happened to Loqbox Lite?
Loqbox used to have a free option, which let you just use the Loqbox Save feature without any monthly fees. This has been removed as a sign-up option and the name “Lite” is being phased out. However, you can still access the free option that’s formerly known as Lite by downgrading your membership after sign-up.
Featured investing offer
Customer rating
3.8/5
- Offerfree £50 in fractional shares*
- Annual fee£0
- Investment stylesShares, funds or ready-made portfolios
- Minimum deposit$50
- FSCS Protected? Yes
- Interest on uninvested cash 3% on balances up to $50,000, 3.8% on balances over this
- Fractional shares Yes
- Foreign exchange fee 0.7%
- Fund fees If you invest in funds, you'll have to pay fund fees, which cost on average ~0.16% per year, with additional market-spread effects up to 0.05%
- Offer You need to sign up, verify your account and deposit at least £200 to get the free assets. ISA deposits aren't included in the £200 requirement to get the offer.
- Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority Yes, FRN 583263
- Risk warning The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk. ISA powered by Moneyfarm. ISA rules apply. UK residents only.
- Accounts available General investment account, stocks and shares ISA (additional fees apply)
Why use Loqbox?
Loqbox is designed mostly for people who have thin credit files and want to grow their score, with more of a lean to those who want to do so without taking on any debt, or struggle to do so. Loqbox won’t decline you — it can offer you the “credit” without a hard credit search, so anyone with nothing on their credit file can take it out and, after a few months, get access to the credit they need. If you rent, you could benefit, as it allows you to get some credit for making your rent payment every month, which is typically one of your biggest expenditures.
However, this does cost money, so don’t think that this should be your first step. It’s worth looking into other ways to improve your credit score, such as signing up for the electoral roll or seeing whether you can take out a credit building credit card (that you can use sensibly!).
Is Loqbox a debt?
While you never actually borrow money, the money you owe Loqbox every month is treated as if it were a debt. This means that missed payments are reported to credit reference agencies, although Loqbox is more lenient with this than lenders might be — it will make several attempts to take the payment, then, if you have a Loqbox Save account, it’ll take the payment from your savings.
How to use Loqbox
There isn’t a Loqbox app — you sign up for it on its website. You get the first seven days for free before it begins charging you. After the trial, you’re charged £2.99 a week for the membership.
You immediately have access to the Grow feature, and your weekly membership charge will go towards paying this back. Once in, you can make use of the additional tools, such as set up a savings goal or link your account to Loqbox with Open Banking to start having your rent payments reported.
Get the best of our money saving content every week, straight to your inbox
Plus, new Quidco customers get a high paying £18 welcome offer
Does Loqbox work?
Loqbox claims that its members see an increase in their credit scores by more than 200 points in 12 months. Reviewers over on our sister site Smart Money People seem to really rate it, with many reviewers saying they saw improvements to their credit scores pretty quickly and others saying that it helped them save money.
There are a fair amount of negative reviewers who are confused about the product, some of which potentially don’t understand what service they signed up for.
Loqbox really believes in the effectiveness of its service, it even offers a “Points Promise”, which is a guarantee that you’ll see your score rise by at least 25 points in your first year of membership. If it doesn’t, Loqbox will refund you £25.
You can read more reviews of Loqbox or share your own experience at Smart Money People.
Is Loqbox safe?
Loqbox is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. If you use the “Save” feature, your funds are kept in segregated accounts.
However, it’s important that you don’t sign up for Loqbox lightly — you need to commit to your regular payments when you sign up, as missed payments can have a detrimental impact on your credit score.
Is Loqbox worth it?
Zoe’s analysis
Generally speaking, Loqbox does exactly what it says — it sets up a line of credit for you to pay back over a year, which is reported to credit bureaus. Alone, this definitely has the potential to improve your credit score, especially if you have a very thin file.
If you have particularly bad credit, you might not benefit from Loqbox as much, especially if you’re still in the process of dealing with defaulted or missed payments with other providers. You need 641 points to go from a “bad” to a “fair” credit score on Experian’s scale, and while Loqbox can help, it won’t get you all the way there on its own, especially if you have other factors repeatedly bringing it down.
The benefits of the “Grow” option ultimately aren’t far off from taking out a £250 loan and paying it back over a year — except if you took out a loan, you’d have an initial sum. In fact, taking out a £250 loan at any interest rate below 100% would cost you less money than with Loqbox.
However, that doesn’t mean it’s a pointless product, it just means it’s possibly not the first step someone should take when trying to build up a credit history. Some people with bad credit or very thin files might find that they won’t be offered a loan or any kind of borrowing in the first place.
The Save feature is pretty good and lets you save into a 0% account, but with the benefit of your payments being recognised by credit reference agencies. There are two main benefits of this — firstly, you’re committed to saving money regularly, so you end up with between £240 and £2,400 saved; and that amount is reported, so you’re also building up a good credit history over time.
The Rent feature is a great idea, but it’s disappointing that it’ll only be reported to Experian. This means that if a lender runs a search with Equifax or TransUnion, they’ll get different results.
Ultimately, if you’re looking to see your rent included in your Experian report, it’s simpler to take out the credit reference agency’s own Boost product — which is free and will include rent, council tax and more, potentially adding 100 points to your score.
