Boshhh: A mobile network that helps you build credit score

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What is Boshhh?

Boshhh* is a brand new-ish mobile network.

It’s designed to help those with poor credit build up their credit history with a sim-only mobile contract.

It was founded in Manchester in August 2022 by Sebastian James Gerrard and Lewis Camilleri, and launched in August 2023.

Based on their Companies House data, Gerrard has since left, but Camilleri has stayed on as the CEO.

In August 2024, the company secured £1 million in seed funding from private investors so you’ll start to see it in a big way if you don’t already know about it.

Boshhh the sister company

Boshhh has a sister company, boshhh.io, which it links to from its main website.

Confusingly, it appears to be a fintech start-up that connects users with both financial service companies and legal professionals.

As it says on its sister site, its “AI-powered report reviews clients’ financial histories to provide financial service companies with detailed insights, enabling them to determine the most suitable financial services for their customers.” 

As for the clients, that is, the users, it “helps legal professionals assess your financial data to identify claims or legal services you may qualify for, saving you time and offering personalised legal guidance”.

So quite multi-faceted.

How does Boshhh build credit?

Boshhh has partnered with Equifax for the credit building bit.

Equifax is one of three major consumer credit reporting agencies, alongside Experian and TransUnion.

When you sign up to Boshhh, you sign up to a 12-month sim-only contract.

Unlike phone contracts that are renewed on a 30-day basis, a 12-month (or longer) mobile contract is seen as a credit agreement – basically a form of borrowing.

As you’re borrowing, and Boshhh is reporting this to Equifax, you’ll start to build up a credit history.

As long as you pay your bill on time every month, and all other things being equal, you should see an increase in your credit score – although Boshhh doesn’t guarantee this.

If you miss a payment with Boshhh or elsewhere, your credit score could also fall.

This is set out in Section 21.4 of its terms and conditions* (below).

How is this different from any other mobile contract?

Actually, if you have a 12-month, 18-month or 24-month mobile contract rather than a 30-day rolling contract or Pay As You Go contract, the chances are this spend is already being reported to credit agencies.

Certainly all four of the UK’s mobile network providers – EE, Vodafone, O2 and Three – do this when you have a contract directly with them.

So Boshhh isn’t the only mobile network that will help you build your credit score.

The key difference here is that Boshhh’s contracts are available to everyone, regardless of credit history.

They also don’t carry out a credit check beforehand – if you have too many credit checks it could also affect your credit score.

In contrast, if you apply for a contract with EE, Vodafone, O2 and Three, they will do a credit check before you’re approved.

And in some cases, they may reject your application.

How much does Boshhh cost?

What are the Roam Like Home countries?

The Boshhh Roam Like Home destinations include the following:

For everywhere else, roaming charges will apply*.

Note that in the following countries you may not have any service at all:

Is Boshhh a good deal?

Boshhh doesn’t offer the cheapest mobile deal, and actually it gets quite expensive. However, it is currently offering a discount.

At the moment it’s offering the first two months of every 12-month contract for free, so you’re basically paying for a 10 month contract.

There’s also no mid-contract price rises, unlike with some of the other network providers.

Where I couldn’t find an exact match, I’ve gone for an offer that gives even better value for a lower price.

ID Mobile does perform a credit check for these 12-month contracts though.

There are actually cheaper rolling contracts where no credit checks are required, but they won’t benefit from the credit building benefits either.

What mobile network does Boshhh use?

So even though Boshhh is a mobile network provider, it doesn’t have its own infrastructure.

Instead it piggybacks on the EE network, which has some of the best coverage around.

This is quite normal.

EE, Vodafone, O2 and Three are the only networks with their own infrastructure. All the other networks will piggyback on the big four networks.

Are there any other benefits of using Boshhh?

Boshhh is marketing itself on credit building so it’s making the most of it by incorporating this into the app.

You’ll find tips for example on other things you could do to improve your credit score.

You’ll also be able to check your credit score on the app and watch it as it goes up.

On top of this, Boshhh says it offers exclusive discounts across thousands of brands within its app, which may be a bit of an exaggeration.

I’m unable to check what discounts are available without signing up for a 12-month contract though based on the logos used on its website the list includes Uber, Greggs and Deliveroo.

Are there any downsides to using Boshhh?

The lack of price competitiveness aside, you should be aware that if you sign up to Boshhh, you’re signing up for a 12-month contract that automatically renews for a further 12 months if you don’t cancel.

If you don’t want to stay with them for another year, you must tell Boshhh you want to cancel your contract 90 days before it happens.

Further, you have to serve your notice “no more than 90 calendar days and no less than 30 calendar days before the last day of the contract period”, per Section 4 of the terms and conditions* (below).

Based on those terms, you’d only be able to cancel two to three months before the end of your contract period, with the cancellation going through three months after you’ve served notice.

This clause is extremely onerous and to be honest quite off-putting.

On every other mobile contract I’ve seen, the notice period is 30 days.

The other thing to bear in mind is that Boshhh only works with Equifax.

It means if your lender uses Experian or TransUnion, you won’t have benefitted from using Boshhh at all.

Final thoughts on Boshhh

I was super excited to hear about Boshhh.

It sounded quite promising as a tool to help people improve their credit score without doing too much extra work.

All that excitement was quashed when I looked into it a bit more.

It’s quite a bit more expensive than other products on the market and it doesn’t necessarily do more – 12-month contracts from other providers can help you improve your credit score too.

Plus, the cancellation clause gives me major red flags.

That said, if you’re really keen to use mobile contracts to help you build your credit score, and have been turned away by cheaper providers, it’s worth giving Boshhh a go – and you can sign up here*.

Just make sure you’ve read their terms and conditions properly.

For everyone else, I think it’s one to watch.

Read more: Experian Boost: How to instantly improve your credit score

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