It seems more people are struggling today to make ends meet. For the past decade or so, many people were living beyond their means. Many were living a luxurious life style. With the way the economy took a turn for the worse in the last few years, many of those same people are having to learn to make ends meet. With mounting debt, late payments on bills as well as having a repossession or foreclosure, many find their credit scores plummeted. There are a few things you can do to boost your credit score.
The first course of action should be to obtain a copy of your credit report. All consumers are entitled to one free credit report per year. Contact the major credit reporting agencies to inquire about obtaining your free report.
The major credit bureaus are Transunion, Equifax and Experian. If you have applied for credit and have been denied, you are allowed a free copy of your report each time this occurs.
It is a myth that you pulling your report lowers your credit score. This is not true. Your score is not affected when you personally obtain your report.
One of the first pieces of information a creditor will look at on your report is your credit and the history of paying on your accounts. They will look at the length of time the accounts have been opened. They look at the timeliness of your payments to those accounts.
They take into consideration the amount of debt owed on accounts.The older the accounts are the better, as long as payments have been made on time. Of course you do not want to see delinquent accounts on your report or accounts showing late payments.
When you get your report be sure to also request your credit score. There is a small fee for obtaining your score. Check for any possible errors on the report. Check the limit amount on your report for the credit cards you have. You might find out the limit amount listed is higher than what you actually have.
This can impact your score and should be corrected. If you have paid accounts in full, however this is not what is showing on your report, you will need to get these corrected as well.
Any negative accounts on your report that are older than 7 to 10 years old should not be on your report. These should come off automatically but many times they do not. The bureau must be notified and a request to have it removed be submitted by you.
Try to bring the amount of debt down by paying more on your accounts. Paying down credit card debt will make a larger impact on your score than anything else. An ideal situation would be to have your credit card balances paid down to 30 percent of the accounts credit limit amount.
Your credit score is reflective on what your credit card balance is and not how much you paid. Long term credit helps to boost your score so keep your older credit card accounts active. Never close an account or ask a creditor to lower your limit since this will impact your score in a negative manner.
Avoid moving credit balances from one account to another. The offers you receive of lower interest rates make it enticing to do this however, it will negatively impact your credit score.
If you find you are having a difficult time understanding any aspects of your credit report or score make an appointment with one of the credit counselors at any of the three major credit reporting bureaus.