Raise Your Credit Score
What are credit scores for and why are they important?
A credit score is a number that credit bureaus such as Equifax or Transunion attach to you in a personel file. The number can be from 300 to 850. The score can be accessed by insurance companies or credit card companies to determine whether or not they will extend credit to you and what the interest rate might be. Kepping your score above 700 insures that you will be entitled to the lowest rates on everything fron home loan interest rates to car insurance.
How do you find out your credit score?
Credit scores can be pulled for no charge online from various sources. Just keep in mind that most of them are trying to enist you in a monthly billing program in order to monitor any changes to your report. When I want to pull my report I simply cancel before the monthly billing cycle begins.
How can I get my credit score higher?
Credit scores are determined by a number of factors. Of course paying your bills on time helps a lot. Some negative items are weighted more heavily than others. A late payment of more than 30 days will show as a negative item hence weighing down your score. Late payments of less than 30 days should not effect your credit either way. Late payments do stay on your report for at least 3 years
If you have credit cards don’t ever close an account. Many people make this mistake, they are under the impression that when the balance is paid up then if they close the account it will make their credit score go up. Actually just the opposite happens, the credit bureau sees now that you have less credit and views that in a negative fashion. What they want is for you to have lots of credit but not be using any of it. It is better to keep small balances on several cards than a large balance on just one or two.
Watch out for credit inquiries.When shopping for an auto loan shop for the best rate and make sure to combine all inquiries in to a 2 week period. The credit bureaus don’t want to see that you are always shopping for more credit.
Credit card companies will raise your limit if you ask them. Having higher limits on your cards will raise your score because your overall debt ratio will be lower.
Maintaining a good credit score just requires making intelligent decisions. Always pay your bills when they are due, early if possible. Don’t drive a fancy car if you can’t afford it. Pay more than the required payment on your credit cards each month. If you are looking for a house to buy they always say “dont waste money on more house than you need” buy a sensible home and always put 20% down so you payment is lower and you won’t have PMI insurance.
Do you need more information about repairing your credit score? If so take a look at this site:raise your credit score Dave Stevens is an expert in showing people how to repair their credit and is a author at Freedom Credit Review