Fix Your Credit Score By Applying These Tips!
With credit playing “hard to get” during this most recent economic downturn and lenders raising their standards for doling out cash, it’s more important than ever to boost your odds of getting a loan with a good credit score.
Here are five tips to help fix your credit score and give you a greater chance of getting that cash you may need.
A. Annual Check Up
Getting an idea of what your credit score is has become so much easier now with government legislation that gives everyone the right to request one free credit report each year.
I highly suggest visiting annualcreditreport.com to request your free copy. Knowing where you are will help determine your next steps.
B. Be Punctual
This is so simple, yet it’s amazing that many folks think being a couple weeks late on their payment is no big deal as long as they are paying something.
According to CNN Money, ”someone with an average credit rating of 707 can raise their score by as much as 20 points by paying all their bills on time for one month.”
C. Clean Up Errors and Old Information
Check your report carefully to see if there is any outstanding information that shouldn’t be showing up.
Perhaps an old doctor bill or credit card still shows a balance. You’ll want to check for accurate credit limits from your card issuers as well.
You can fix your credit score typically by taking care of these things with a phone call to one or more of the reporting agencies.
Experian – 888-397-3742
TransUnion – 800-916-8800
Equifax – 800-685-1111
D. Don’t Close Old Accounts
This may seem counterintuitive, but closing old accounts will not fix your credit score it will generally hurt it.
This is because the reporting agencies want to see a nice long history of using credit. According to Fool.com, “lenders take a hard look at the ratio between the balances on your revolving accounts and your total available credit. If you do have debt, try to keep it to less than 30% of your available credit.” If you start closing your accounts, your debt-to-available-credit ratio goes up and impedes your score.
E. Eliminate Debt
As mentioned, lenders typically like to see a debt ratio of 30% or less.
No debt would be ideal! Get serious about improving your credit score by getting serious about eliminating debt, especially paying down those credit cards.
Managing your debt responsibly will help boost your score tremendously.
Breakdown of How Credit Scores Are Calculated:
Improving and fixing your credit score won’t happen over night, but with simple discipline and some practical steps you can start seeing improvement in a very short time.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Credit Scores are a Red Herring. While the blog post is about how to improve it, the post has the consequence encouraging folks to the give more life to this tool of the system. I posit that the score is unimportant and spending your time thinking about it is wasted effort.
Once you’ve mastered your life’s financial situation, you find that the score itself is of no value. The only negative consequence we’ve ever faced with our score was when an Insurance company tried to raise our policy rates because of our “low score.” What they didn’t take into account was particular financial situation (e.g. that we haven’t needed a loan in years and years and years). We promptly took our insurance business else where and were not penalized for not needing the “system.” Credit Scores could also come into play with a potential employer, but that too can be addressed quite easily.
The mechanics offered in the post are probably right (I have no idea), but I suggest you focus your efforts on putting yourself into a strong financial position and not be slave to a number that is not only meaningless, but fools you into a disease ridden love affair.
Credit Scores are a Red Herring. While the blog post is about how to improve it, the post has the consequence encouraging folks to the give more life to this tool of the system. I posit that the score is unimportant and spending your time thinking about it is wasted effort.
Once you’ve mastered your life’s financial situation, you find that the score itself is of no value. The only negative consequence we’ve ever faced with our score was when an Insurance company tried to raise our policy rates because of our “low score.” What they didn’t take into account was particular financial situation (e.g. that we haven’t needed a loan in years and years and years). We promptly took our insurance business else where and were not penalized for not needing the “system.” Credit Scores could also come into play with a potential employer, but that too can be addressed quite easily.
The mechanics offered in the post are probably right (I have no idea), but I suggest you focus your efforts on putting yourself into a strong financial position and not be slave to a number that is not only meaningless, but fools you into a disease ridden love affair.
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