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5 Ways to Fix Raise Credit Score

August 2, 2010 12:30 am Published by

5 Ways to Fix Raise Credit Score

Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t realize the importance of having and maintaining a good credit score until it is too late. It’s when they are turned down or a job, denied from renting an apartment, or when they can’t get an auto loan that they wish they had paid a little closer attention to the due dates on their bills.

For some people a bad credit score can actually mean not being able to get approved for a credit card or loan, while for others it could mean the difference in several thousand dollars from higher interest rates.

Luckily, it’s never too late to fix your credit score. There are several strategies you can use to make immediate improvements to your FICO score without the help of a paid professional. Here are the top 5 ways to raise credit score:

1. Know your available credit to debt ratio: One of the quickest ways to fix your credit score (or make it worse) is to improve your credit-to-debt ratio. For example, if you have a credit card with a ,000 spending limit, and you have a balance of ,000, you are using 50% of your available credit limit. Ideally you want to be around 25% or lower. There best way to solve that is to pay down your debt. If that’s not an option, there are some tricks you can use to improve that ratio.

2. Keep a credit history: One of the biggest mistakes people do when trying to fix their credit is closing all of their credit cards. This can actually have the reverse affect because creditors and lenders want to see that you have a history of borrowing money or using credit. If you are going to close some accounts, make sure it is the most recent accounts that you have and keep the old ones open indefinitely.

3. Don’t apply for too much new credit: If you keep applying for credit over and over, this raises some red flags and will hurt your credit score. Research has found that typically when someone is desperately trying to get approved for a loan or opening multiple accounts, they generally end up going on a spending spree and end up unable to pay back their debts.

4. Pay off revolving debt: Paying off your revolving debt, or credit cards, will help you get back on track. It will also help you lower your credit to debt ration and improve your credit history. All good things for your credit score.

5. Pay your bills on time: One of the very best things you can do to create a near perfect credit score is to pay your bills. Set up automatic bill pay so you never have to worry about being late again and being stuck with late fees.

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Persistence Pays Off To Repair Credit Score

August 1, 2010 7:35 pm Published by

Your credit score is a very important part of your financial health. When you default on loans or miss monthly payments you are endangering your borrowing power. Any time you apply for credit of any kind, the lender first checks your report to get an idea of how responsible you are in repaying your debts. A low score could result in denial of the application or a high rate of interest in the repayment plan. Therefore it is important to take steps to repair credit score reports as soon as possible.

There are three main credit reporting agencies that receive information from lenders and merchants. Every time you miss a payment or are late, this is recorded in your credit report and lowers your score. You can obtain a free report once a year from each of these agencies and this is something you should do on an annual basis. Check the document carefully, especially your address, full name, the name of your employer and your current debts. Identity theft often does not show up until people find they have credit problems and are astounded to realize that someone has borrowed money using their name and of course didn’t repay. You do have to contact the agency involved in writing to start the process of having the errors corrected.

When your low score is the result of negligence on your part, you do need to sit down and make a list of all your debts. If you do have the finances available to make the payments, remit the amount of money owing to the creditors as soon as you can. However, if you are in a position of financial hardship, due to layoff because of the downturn in the economy, divorce or illness, you can apply for a debt consolidation loan to combine all your bills into one. This makes it easier to live up to your monthly commitment and lenders do look favorably on this action because they see that you are starting to take control of your responsibilities.

When you find that you are having financial problems, you should not try to avoid the lenders. Make an appointment to sit down with them to discuss your situation and explain why you are unable to live up to your commitments at the present time. You will be surprised to find that they are willing to help and will work with you to rectify the problem.

Debt consolidation agencies can also help you by making arrangements with the creditors to take lower payments in order to get you back on track. In this type of plan, you pay a set amount of money each money and the consultant working with you distributes the money accordingly.

Your borrowing power is severely hampered when you have a poor credit rating. Take a detailed look at how much money you owe and your income to find ways of paying higher amounts on one bill at a time. By concentrating your efforts on one account and making the minimum payments on the other, you will gradually start to eliminate your debts. However, do not regard the money you have when you repay an account as extra. Instead, use this to pay down another bill and this will happen rather quickly when you make higher payments.

When you do start to repair credit score, it is important to realize that this will not happen overnight. It will take at least six months before you will notice any raise in the percentages.

Want to find out more about how to repair your credit score, then visit Quick Fix Credit Score where you can receive your free report on 10 Free Steps To Instantly Start Repairing Bad Credit!



How To Increase Your Credit Score

July 31, 2010 5:05 pm Published by

Your credit rating is among one of the most important things in your life. It will determine your future. And your life can be more fulfilled if your rating is high. You need to find out how to increase your credit score to make your future brighter.

You can quickly improve your score by getting a line of credit and paying the bill religiously. You may be able to get a credit card, or a card from a department store. As long as they report monthly to the major three recognized credit bureaus, you will be on your way to improving your credit score.

If your credit is less than perfect, or you have never had credit before, you may need to secure a pre-paid credit card. That is a credit card wherein your money is put down on it, and you borrow against it. You are borrowing against your own money, and paying the institution interest, in order for you to be able to use what looks like a charge card. Since they report monthly to the credit bureaus, this should help you.

You can also obtain credit through a used car dealer. They are probably among the most lenient lenders. This is because people who buy used cars usually can’t afford a new car. And often their credit is a bit tarnished. They need the sales, so they have to be more forgiving. Just be sure they report monthly to the credit bureaus.

When you are given the line of credit to work with, you must make the payments on time. They must be made before or on the due date. That means that the institution must receive your payment before or on the exact due date. It cannot be late. Sometimes there is short grace period, but as soon as that period passes by, the bill will be reported to the bureaus as a thirty-day late payment. Your credit will already be ruined.

For twenty-four months your payments need to be made on time. They can be for more than the minimum amount due, but not for less. The longer this good habit continues, the better your rating will be. Do not try to make payments that are above the minimum payment to earn points. The credit companies do not care at all about that. In fact, they want you to pay the minimum payment, so that you continue to collect the interest.

Once a pattern is established, you can see how easily it is to stick to it. Your score will increase nicely, and your auto insurance premiums may even decrease over time. When you learn how to increase your credit score, you can buy nearly anything you want.

Learn more about fixing your credit score at Quick Fix Credit Score. Where you can receive your free report on “10 Free Steps To Instantly Start Repairing Bad Credit”!



Mistakes To Avoid With Your Credit Score

July 27, 2010 2:39 pm Published by

Knowing how to avoid mistakes, when it comes to your credit score, can be the difference between an ideal score and a poor score. Some of these mistakes can be hard to detect, and may even seem like the exact opposite of mistakes! But you need to make sure that you are fully informed before making any serious decisions. Making big mistakes, like the one I’m about to reveal, can cause your credit score to drop significantly. This can then lead to less-than-favorable credit terms or loan offers when you do decide to apply. The big mistake that I’m referring to is applying for many different credit accounts or loans within a short period of time.

When applying for several different credit accounts, it’s easy to forget how this will be perceived by creditors and lenders. You need to be thinking like one of these companies. When they see a person applying for several different accounts in a very short period of time, the only thing that is going through there head is, “This person has got to either have money problems, or is desperate to receive credit.” These are the kind of thoughts that you don’t want companies to have about you when applying for credit. I know it’s easy to fall into this trap, with all the heavy promoting these companies do to get people to open new accounts. But one of the biggest mistakes you can make, when it comes to your credit score, is to apply for a bunch of different loans or accounts, in a short period of time. So protect your score, and avoid this very common mistake.

Another huge (and common) mistake that people make, is not using their oldest credit accounts every now and then. A significant determining factor, when it comes to your credit score, comes from your credit history. In order to have a credit history, you need to have old credit cards and accounts. If you make sure that you use these cards every couple of months, this activity will be reported to the major bureau’s and your credit score will reflect that in a positive way. Just make sure to pay off the purchase immediately, to avoid any further damage to your score.

A big mistake that many consumers make, in the erroneous belief that this step will help improve their credit score, is to lower the available credit limit on accounts which are open. This has the opposite effect of what is usually intended, and can drop your credit score significantly. This can seem ironic, because you are trying to minimize your use of credit and it hurts your credit score instead of boosting it. The bigger the difference between the available credit that you have and the balances that you owe on this credit, the higher your credit score will be. If you make the mistake of lowering your credit limit and available balance, this step will backfire, and severely hurt your credit instead. This is due to the fact that the gap between these two figures will be smaller, so you will probably be considered a higher credit risk and receive a lower FICO score.

The biggest mistake that you can possible make, and the one that will affect good credit in a large way, is to make any of your payments late. Late payments are like death to a great credit score, and even missing a single payment by as little as one or two days can cause your credit score to drop like a stone in a deep lake. This one mistake can take your credit score from good to poor in a very short time, and may be responsible for your credit score to lower by one hundred points or more.

Consolidating your credit accounts can also be a big mistake, even though this may seem like a good idea and a way to repair your credit if it is less than perfect. A common practice is to transfer high interest account balances over to a credit card which has a lower balance, but you should avoid doing this if at all possible. A better way to protect or repair your credit score is to evenly spread out your credit card charges over all of the cards you have. This improves the gap between your balance and available credit, and will boost your credit score instead of harming it.

Looking to find the best information on improving your credit score, then visit Quick Fix Credit Score, where you can receive your 100% free report on “10 FREE Steps To Instantly Start Repairing Your Bad Credit!





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Edited by: Michael Saunders

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