| Increasing Your Credit Score |
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Why your credit score is important and how to raise it
Why your credit score is important and how to raise it 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 do you increase your score? Credit scores are defined under a number of factors that determine your overall score. Some things are more heavily weighted than others such as any late payments or charge offs. A late payment usually shows up on your report after not being paid for 30 days or more. Anything late before 30 days will generally not be shown on a report. Late payments will show on your report for at least 3 years so it makes a lot of sense to pay your bills on time! 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. Most card companies will raise your credit limits if you ask. Doing this will raise your score too. Credit bureaus will look favorably on this because your debt ratio will be a lot better. 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. DISCLAIMER: This article is provided as information only and is not to be taken as financial advice. Do you need more information about raising your credit score? If so take a look at this website:raise your credit score Dave Stevens is an expert in teaching others how to repair their credit and is a author at Freedom Credit Review |