Debt Consolidation Credit Counseling In Cleveland Debt Consolidation Credit Counseling In Cleveland

Find out more on Debt Consolidation Credit Counseling In Cleveland Now!

Friday, December 26, 2008

How To Improve Your Credit Score

By John Cooper

Improving your credit score can seem like a daunting task. The credit bureaus claim to factor in hundreds of things and you have no direct control over your score.

Well they are wrong. No matter how bad your credit score is you can take a couple easy steps and improve it.

1. Dispute and remove negative items on your credit report. This can be done yourself or you can hire a service to do it on your behalf.

2. If an item is verified then work out a way to pay them in exchange have the item removed from your your credit report.

3. Pay your bills on time. It is estimated that missing a payment can damage a good score by up to 50 points.

4. Open a new line of credit. You will get the most benefit if this is a revolving line of credit. We recommend an unsecured credit card.

By paying your monthly bill you will develop a positive payment history. This is a heavily weighted factor when your score is being calculated. If your score is currently to low to get an unsecured credit card then open a secured card just make sure it reports to all three bureaus.

In addition by keeping your balance at approximately 10% of the credit limit it will build the most credit. This shows that you use your credit and use it responsibly.

5. Pay off large debt. Your score will get a bump if you have high available credit to debt. The bureaus want to make sure you are not overextended and by showing them you have available credit your score will get a bump.

These are the only factors you should focus on when improving your credit score. There is one last tip that is surrounded in controversy.

6. Piggyback credit, this is where you become an authorized user on a high credit limit credit card. The benefit is this account is now reported on your credit report and adding a tremendous boost.

This tactic has been widely abused and the scoring model has adjusted its formula to discount authorized users. However there is a debate over if this change has occurred yet or not.

In sum, focus on steps one through five and you are on your way to a 700 credit score. You don't have to live with bad credit you can increase your score and your quality of life.

About the Author:

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home