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How to Build a Healthy Credit Score
When choosing a loan, one of the first things we check on is the interest rates. Apparently, the lowest interest rates and the best deals are only offered to those with good to excellent credit. If you have plans on obtaining a personal loan, car loan or mortgage, check your credit first to see if youll qualify for the best rates. If you have a low credit score, its a good idea to work on improving your credit first before applying for a loan. How can you build up your credit score? Here are some tips:
Remove negative information. Negative information can dramatically pull down your overall credit score. If those negative remarks are old and have already been settled, ask the credit bureau who issued your report if these remarks can be removed. Also, check for errors or incorrect charges in your report. If you found errors, call your creditor involved to clarify the issue and send a letter of dispute to your credit bureau.
Do not maximize your credit limit. See to it that youre not using more than 50% of your credit limit on all your accounts. Experts recommend using only 30%-40% of your allotted credit to reduce the risk of accumulating debts and improve your credit score at the same time. Dont close old accounts. Be careful about cancelling credit cards especially if youve had those cards for a long time. If those cards have high rates and charges, you dont have to use them often. Use them once in awhile only for small purchases to keep them from automatically closing. After swiping the card, pay off your balance completely before your scheduled due date.
Submit payments on time. Its important to submit your payments on time not only to your credit cards but to all your creditors. Pay close attention to your payment dates. As much as possible, try to submit your payments ahead of your due date to avoid delays or missed payments. Not only will this habit help build up your credit score, you can also save money by not paying the extra interest rate and late penalty charges.
Avoid submitting multiple applications to different lending companies. If you want to apply for a new credit card, choose carefully and submit your application to only one credit card company. Dont try to apply for credit cards just to get the freebies they offer. Remember, too many inquiries on your credit report sends out a negative impression to other lenders and may pull down your credit score.
Call in advance if youre going to be late. If you know that you cant submit your payment on time for this month, call your lender or credit card company right away and explain your situation. If you do so, it is most likely that your creditor would extend your due date without reporting it as late payment. If you promised your creditor that you will be paying your balance by the next month, do your best to keep your promise.
Boost Your Credit Score
Boost your credit score by collecting all your bills and financial papers and giving them a spring cleaning, regardless of the time of year. Everyone wants a perfect credit score of 850 or to increase their credit rating to the best possible credit score. This is the main factor lending agencies consider when extending a loan or approving credit cards. Lenders want to know your payment history and credit scores are the way they get this information quickly and easily.
What makes up a person’s credit score? How it becomes part of their credit history? A credit score is based on information gathered by the three U.S. credit bureaus: Equifax, Experion and Trans Union. Your credit score history began with the first purchase you ever made using credit. You didn’t do anything for the credit information to get into your credit history. You simply signed a credit note or credit agreement promising to repay the credit lender the funds of the loan or credit card through payments of a specific minimum amount over a specific period of time. The credit lender extending the credit, whether is was for an automobile, furniture or something else, automatically entered your credit information into the credit bureau systems and your credit payments were recorded and monitored until you paid in full. When you paid a loan in full, that account was marked “closed”. In the case of a credit card, the account would remain open as long as you are authorized to use that credit card account.
If you made no late credit payments, the credit entry became a good reference for your next purchase. All late or insufficient payments were noted and if there were many, a bad mark was placed on your credit history. As you began to use more credit, your credit history grew. The credit bureaus generated a credit score based on your credit repayments. Today, a credit score of 750 is considered a very good credit rating; a credit score over 750 is excellent while a credit scores below 600 is poor.
Boost your credit score by keeping your credit history up-to-date and making every credit card or other credit payment on time. Commit to avoid making any late credit payments. Pay off some of your credit debit completely. Reduce your overall credit debt to income ratio.
You should obtain a copy of your credit score report. Credit reports are now available, at no cost to you except postage and handling, once per year by requesting them from the credit bureaus. Check each credit entry, making certain that all credit entries actually belong on your credit record, that credit accounts you have paid off are marked ‘closed’ and clear up any errors or credit entries that haven’t been recorded properly. You might even find credit history that has not been recorded at all. The credit bureaus will send a form to request any corrections; simply fill out this form and return it by mail. After a few months, obtain another credit report and verify correction to your credit records. Check to see if you have successfully increased your credit score. By increasing your credit score even a few points at a time, you will be able to gain more buying power through prudent use of credit.