Month: February 2015

Improving Your Credit Score

There are many things that you need to know on how to improve your credit score. This is especially useful and valuable if you wish to get the best deals on the various credit options that can be offered to you. A high credit score can ensure you that at least your credit applications have higher chances of getting approved.

A credit score can help lenders decide if you are good enough to extend credit to in terms in your ability to pay it off on time. Credit institutions are involved in a business where they aim to earn from the money that they lend as credit to borrowers. Providing the credit to people who are responsible enough to pay them on time would serve their best interests. And for them to determine who these people are, there is the individual’s credit score to tell them.

A credit score is a calculated score based on a designed formula that would help lenders determine your credit risk. Your credit score would tell them if you have a good record when it comes to managing or handling your previous debts. Through your credit score, they can have a good assessment on how their decisions when it comes to approving or rejecting credit application would be made.

You would need to maintain a high credit score if you wish to be considered an attractive prospect the next time that you apply for credit. Lenders look for borrowers who they think would be able to pay back the money that they lend and so look into the credit score for determining your credit risk. The higher your credit score, the lower the risk and the better the chances that your credit applications would be approved.

There are many things that you can do in order to improve your credit score. One of the first things that you can do is to check your own credit report. The calculation of credit scores is usually based on entries that can be found on your own credit report. Your credit report is a record of your past credit history as well as other pertinent information associated with it.

Credit reporting agencies look into your credit report and, based on the different factors that they can get from it, would then calculate for your credit score. This means that you have to make sure that every entry made on your credit reports is accurate as possible. An error or wrong entry can have an effect on your credit score later on.

One of the best ways for you to improve your credit score is by trying to keep your credit payments on time. Missed payments can greatly affect your credit score. Just being able to promptly pay your debt installments when they’re due would help keep your credit score up. If possible, you can also try to pay off balances completely as early as you can. Keeping your balances low can also greatly affect your credit score in a positive way.

If you are trying to avail of short term credit try to make sure that you don’t try to open several of them at almost the same time. Having a lot of new accounts on a relatively short period would most likely lower your credit score. The same way goes with availing of several credit cards.

You may want to have a wide variety of credit cards handy so that you may have a better mix of available credit when you need it. But be also aware that doing so may also greatly affect your credit score. That would not work well in your mission on how to improve your credit score.

Fixing Your Credit Score

It is time to fix your credit score when you begin to find it hard to get your credit applications approved. In fact, the best thing that you would have done is by trying to maintain a good credit score. But if you end up with a low credit score, it is not the end of the world. There are ways in which you may still be able to fix it up. But doing so would take a lot of effort and may take some time.

The reason why a credit score is important for lenders is that it provides them with an assessment of how you have been doing on your past credit. Your credit score may show them how responsible you’ve been on your finances. It is a way for them to ensure that their own business in terms of providing credit to borrowers would not end up badly. It would also help them determine if you are worthy enough for the loan that you have applied for.

This will give you a pretty good idea on how a good credit score will affect your credit standing. A high credit score would provide some benefits to an individual. For one, a person with a high credit score would be able to get the best deals on a home or even a car loan. High credit scores may also even give lenders the option of offering loans with lower interest rates on their mortgaged homes or cash loans.

But when you have a low credit score, the biggest disadvantage is that most of your credit applications will end up being rejected by most credit institution that you come to. They will see you as a risky prospect to lend their money to. And if ever you do get approved for credit, oftentimes it comes with a higher interest rate. This means that you will have to pay off higher amounts than what is usual. This can also become a burden in the long run.

Fixing your credit score is not an easy matter and may take a lot of effort and time. But there are ways that you may be able to employ to fix your credit score. You may have heard of several credit repair companies online that will offer to fix your credit score for you. Some would even offer to fix your bad credits in a matter of weeks. It would be a very attractive offer considering that you have a low credit score and would want to have it fixed as quickly as possible to get that credit application approved.

But bear in mind that fixing a credit score is not easy, even for so called credit repair companies. Quick fixes are not usually possible considering that correcting just a misprint or error on your credit report would take several months to correct. So be wary of promises made by some credit repair companies to quickly fix up your credit score. If what they say is too good to be true, chances are, it probably is.

The best way to be sure of such companies should you hire for their services is to research on them first. It would do you best to learn about where they are located and how they can be contacted. Make sure that they are legitimate enough to do business with.

If not, some credit repair agencies would sometimes resort to unethical credit repair measures to fix your credit score which can get you into more trouble. Try to be wary of such companies.

Credit Score Repair

If you happen to be one of those with a low credit score, don’t worry because help is on the way. Reading this article will give you an idea of how to repair your credit score so you get to see positive results the next time you get a copy from a credit agency.

Credit score repair starts by getting a copy of this document from a credit agency. There are three to choose from namely Expedia, Equifax and Transunion. The basis of this figure lies on your credit history, outstanding debts and length of credit.

The next thing for you to do is to examine it. Most people have at least one or two errors that can be corrected if you have supporting documents to refute those claims. These should be mailed to the credit agency who handed the credit report so they can conduct an investigation and make the necessary corrections if what you say happens to be true.

However, if the negative information is true, the only thing you can do is pay those debts. You have to remember that late payments and charged off accounts will remain in your record for the next 7 years. If ever you filed for bankruptcy, this will be kept on file for 10 years.

The challenge of paying for debt is that you don’t have to pay the amount in a lump sum. The only way to do this is to pay these slowly and to prevent it from being reported, you have to talk with the creditors regarding your situation and work out a payment plan.

If you are successful in making a deal, then you have to make it happen by coming up with the money. This can be achieved by cutting down on your expenses and using this to pay off the debt that has the highest interest rate. Once you have passed that hurdle, it is time to work on the rest.

The objective here is for you to be able to close unneeded or unused accounts so you end up carrying only 2 credit cards left in your wallet.

It is advisable to end the newer ones rather than the old ones and if there are many, do this over a period of several months. You should verify that they were closed so this will also be reflected in your report.

You can use the same strategy for fixed loan payments but remember that this is just a short term because you will be paying more due to interest but at least it allows you to stay current and aids in credit score repair.

Surely, you want to keep some money to be able to buy necessities like food, clothes and gas. In order to earn interest, you should open a savings account at your back. This gesture also shows creditors that although you have credit problems, you are determined to get yourself out of the hole.

Repairing your credit score will not be accomplished overnight. You will have to change your lifestyle for awhile until things get better and when that happens, you should make sure that this stays that way. If you need help, get a financial adviser who will help you every step of the way so you won’t be in debt again.