Protect And Improve Your Credit Rating

 

Your credit score accounts for the amount of interest you have to pay for a loan or a credit card. Increasing your score in just a few points will make a big difference in the interest rate you will pay for a purchase. If your credit score is high enough, you’ll have no problem qualifying for a lender’s best rates and terms on auto financing, home loans and small business loans. The following are a few tips about how you can protect and improve your credit rating.

1 – Order Your Credit Report.
Your credit score is based on your credit report, so you should begin by ordering your reports and reviewing each one for accuracy. You can get your reports from a service such as MyFico.com, or order from Equifax, Experian and Trans Union separately online or by phone.

2 – Check Your Credit Report Information for Inaccuracies.
Check the identifying information for name, social security number, birth date and incorrect address. Make certain that old negatives and paid-off debts are deleted. Check for accounts and delinquencies that are not yours, late payments, charge offs, lawsuits, judgments or paid tax liens older than seven years old. Also, paid liens or judgments that are listed as unpaid, duplicate collections, bankruptcies that are older than ten years and any negative information that is not yours.

3 – Always Pay Your Bills on Time.
Payment history makes up more than a third of the typical credit score. If you paid bills late in the past, you can improve your credit score by starting to pay your bills on time. Lenders are looking for any sign that you might default, and a late payment is a good indicator that you are in financial difficulty.

4 – Keep Credit Cards Balances Low.
Carrying smaller balances is the best way to increase your credit score. The score measures how much of your limit you use on each credit card or other line of credit, and how much of your combined credit limits you are using on all your cards. Within 60 days, paying down credit card balances can increase your credit score by as much as 20 points.

5 – Try Not to Open In-Store Credit Cards.
Although your first credit accounts can serve to build and improve your credit history, there comes a point when each subsequent credit application can reduce your score. New credit cards reduce the age of your credit history, and a department store credit card isn’t good evidence of credit worthiness. Every time you apply for a retailer’s credit card your credit store gets dinged.

6 – Be Conservative When Applying For Credit.
Having at least one credit card that’s more than 2 years old can help your score by 15 percent. Make sure that your credit report is checked only when necessary. Or, if you are shopping for a home, try to apply for loans within a two-week period. By keeping the loan process within a two-week period, all of the credit report lookups are seen as one single request.

7 – Don’t Close Credit Cards or Other Revolving Accounts.
Shutting down unused accounts that have outstanding balances without paying off the debt changes your “utilization ratio,” which is the amount of your total debt divided by your total available credit. It will reduce the gap between the credit you are using and the total credit available to you, and that can hurt your credit score.

Bad Credit Credit Report Repair

A credit report is a powerful piece of paper. Lenders look at it closely when deciding whether or not to give you a loan. Insurance companies can use it to determine your rates or whether they will cover you at all. Employers can access it and use it as a factor in offering you a job or promotion. With that much significance placed on your credit report, it is absolutely essential that the information it contains paints you in a good light.

Repairing your credit yourself saves you money

According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, consumers can dispute mistakes in their credit report for free. It can be a little time consuming to pull your report, document the error, type up a letter and send it in, so many people hire credit repair agencies to do the boring work for them. There is no real reason, other than the issue of time, to pour out money for work that you can easily do yourself.

There are no secret tricks to credit repair

Don’t be fooled into thinking that you don’t have the knowledge to clean up your credit report and that a credit repair agency knows a bunch of angles that have eluded you. Everything you need to know in order to fix errors on your credit report is readily available and there is nothing in the process that is required to be done by a third party or professional agency that specializes in credit repair.

Keep yourself from getting scammed

Don’t fall for the ads that claim an agency can erase bad credit from your report. The only thing by law that can be changed on a credit report is inaccurate information. If you have had a bankruptcy, the only thing that will legally remove it from your credit report is time.

Credit repair agencies charge anywhere from $400 to $2000 for their services and the reality is they are not doing anything that you can’t do for yourself. For $30 you can obtain a credit report that lists your history with all three credit bureaus. The rest of the investment in cleaning up your credit report is in the value of the time it requires.

10 Tips To Improve Your Credit Score

These days most of us avail loans to buy a house, set up a business, or buy a car. Many students take loans to further their education. How soon the loan is sanctioned, the rate of interest, and the amount sanctioned will all depend on your credit score which is based on your credit report. People with scores of 700 and more are the beneficiaries of lower interest rates and quick sanctions. Imagine if your score is greater than 700 and another person has a score of 698 then the person with score 698 will have to pay interest that is higher by one-half percentage point. And, this means over a year a person with a lower score will pay USD 19,000 and more as interest on a loan of say USD 165,000.

A credit score takes into consideration: payment history, current earnings, current debt, length of credit history, types of credit utilized, and your new credit. If two or more members of your family are earning then apply for a loan jointly.

You can take a few simple steps and ensure that your credit score is higher than 700.

•    Maintain a long healthy credit history. Keep alive your oldest credit card and be sure to pay all bills in time. Never keep bills pending over a 30 day period. If in a crunch at least pay the minimum charges due.

•    Do not have too many credit cards. Learn to say “NO,” to offers of free credit cards. And, maintain a good credit limit. Avoid using all the available credit on the cards.

•    Ensure that the credit report you have is accurate and that there are no errors clerical or otherwise.

•    Plan your finance such that it is healthy. Consider debt consolidation.

•    Never suddenly close or open accounts. This leads to suspicion that you are trying to manipulate your credit report.

•    If you are having problems speak to your creditors well in advance and work out a stage wise repayment. Request the creditor to refrain from reporting the late payment.

•    Late or delayed payments drive your score down so always pay bills dead on time. Keep a tab on due dates and ensure that all bills are paid.

Learn all you can about credit reports and scores and keep the criteria in mind while managing your finances. Maintain the debt-to-credit limit ratio and, if need be take the help of a finance planner.   A useful source to learn about managing credit is: http://www.balancepro.net/services/index.html they provide in depth coverage on money management, debt management, and credit report review.

Even if advised refrain from filing for bankruptcy. All you need to do is to sit down and curtail expenses, plan you income-expenditure , and avoid spending what you have not earned.

How To Restore Your Credit And Your Life

It is often difficult for us when we have bad credit and not knowing where to start to get back on our feet again is even more frustrating.

If you have bad credit, you might want to check into a few resources that can help you find a solution to your credit problem. Life does not have to be difficult and all of us make mistakes.

Bad credit is an obstacle and if you want to run you are about to get yourself into a situation that you do not really need. There is always a solution to most problems. The problem most times is some of us do not have the means to find solutions to our problems.

In this article, I am going to make it quick and to the point, helping you repair your credit through the process.

So the first step is to collect copies of your credit report from the major credit bureaus. Credit bureaus compile and sell information about consumers and are a principal source of information about your credit history.

You are entitled to receive a free copy of your credit report if you have been denied credit within the past 60 days. If you have not been denied credit within the past 60 days, you can order your credit report by paying a fee.

Next, review your credit report watching closely for errors (items that do not belong to you). Dispute any errors on your reports immediately with the credit bureaus. Any errors or inaccurate information will be deleted.

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, all negative information seven years old or more must be deleted. Bankruptcy stay on credit report for up to 10 years or longer.

Once you dispute the negative information, you will receive a copy of your report from the credit bureau, showing the items that were removed and the items that were verified as accurate. The dispute method of removing negative information from your credit file can improve your credit rating.

The Internet offers credit report information, guides, and kits, which can lead you in the right direction to repairing credit. You might want to surf the Net for resources that can help you find a way out of bad credit.

Beware Of Credit Repair Scams

 

If you are in bad credit situation and are anxious in looking for a solution to rebuild your credit, then you may be tempted to answer an advertisement from a company who can promise you that they can give you an entirely new credit identity; all your bad records will be wiped off and you will have clean credit record.

You can see this type of credit repair ads almost everywhere whether or not they are true, sometimes hard to be differentiated. But, you need to aware the true of repairing your bad credit, there are no shortcuts for building an AAA credit rating. It will take time and a lot of efforts from your part to successfully rebuild your credit.

Meanwhile, your must be caution about the credit repair scams who are looking for their prospects like you to fall into their trap. Don’t let you be their victim. If you are looking for a credit repair services, you must take your time to search for a reputable credit repair company. Beware of a few signs of credit repair’s scams describe below:

1. Promise To Erase Your Bad Credit History Quick & Effectively

These companies will promise and even guaranteed your that your bad credit history will be erased in short period of time and your will have totally clean credit records. They normally charge high fee and need you to pay upfront fee.

2. Offer To Get You A New Identity

There are companies who will offer you a new identify. What they do is to get you apply for a tax identification number, which has the same amount of digits as your social security number, and then use it whenever applying for credit. Your record will shows clean with the new tax identification number and you application of credit can be approved.

Beware, you action may send you to jail. Lying to the federal government about your intended uses for a federal ID number is a federal offense. You need to bare the responsibility of law offensive when you get caught.

3. Offer Will Expired Today

Theses scams will pressure their prospect to sign up their plan by today because this special offer will expired tomorrow. They may use other similar tactics to urge you to put your signature into their contract. The contract will stated all the outrageous promises and of course, in return you will ask to pay for high upfront fee.

An honest & reputable credit repairing company will let you know you that your credit cannot be rebuilt overnight and they will never pressure you or trick you to sign a contract with them. In addition, they will make it clear to you, that if you do change your mind within three days of signing, you can cancel it without any obligation.

In Summary

In actually fact, nobody can repair your credit except yourself. A reputable credit repairing company will be able to guide you to achieve you goal. The only way to successfully regain your good credit is thru you own efforts such as pay your bills on time, not extend your credit limits, and be careful not to apply for too many credit lines. Do all of these things on your own and you will soon find yourself with a great credit report!

Building Your Credit

There are several ways that we can build credit. If you are tired of collectors hounding you, or if you are frustrated that no one will loan you money because you never had credit, it is time to learn how to build your credit. First, and foremost never purchase items you do not need. If you ‘want’, do not let your wants wear you down and get you deeper in debt. If you are searching to build credit and have no history at all, make sure you have your priorities in order.

Bad Credit Building Credit

If you have, bad credit get a DO-IT-YOURSELF-Kit and gets the balls rolling. You can go to your public library and get books that will guide you through the steps of repairing your credit. Most libraries allow you to copy and print forms that you must fill out and then send to your credits.

There are systematic guides at your local library that has the tools for instructor debtors how to write letters to creditors. Letters are probably better than phoning creditors, since some creditors could care less about your situation and may threaten you. Another good reason for writing letters is that (copy in writing) is more valuable in a courtroom than a conversation on the phone. If something is said or an agreement is reached and the creditor later denies his or her claims then you can present this to any courtroom and they will listen to you first. Any documents that pertain to your credit history should be stored in a safe area. If you send letters to your creditors keep a copy of each letter sent and store it in a safe area. If you notice any errors on your bills or credit, reports make sure that you contact the appropriate professionals and dispute the charges immediately. If you have credit cards and used the card to purchase an item or use a service and this person sold you a defected item or else provided bad service, you DO NOT have to make payment toward the charges. You do however have to dispute the charges with the services or stores that sold you the product or service. If the sources refuse to give you an item usable, or else reimburse you for a service or product you have the right to deny payment.

Once you have disputed the charges with the sources you will then contact your card provider and let them know what occurred. If you are lucky enough to have a credit card with bad credit, use the card to repay your debts and then meet the monthly installments on the credit card each month. Ironically, you are getting out of debt while going in debt deeper. It is a solution when all else false. In other words, if you use the card to pay your debts each month and then payoff your credit cards the following month and then turnaround and uses the card to pay that month bills….

Now you see where I am going. Credit cards have interest rates so the bills each month on the card will increase.

No, Credit…No Problem

I do not need a credit line or credit card; I pay all my bills each month with money. Is this you? Well then, you have the obvious answer, but what if…

In today’s world, we are moving into an era that requires us to have at least one major credit card. When you phone any business where you have debts, they will first ask you to pay with a credit card. If you go apply for a job, apartment, mortgage, car loan, or any other credit line you most likely will get a rejection notice in the mail. Most lenders will not give credit to anyone that has no credit history. The reason is that we are expected to establish a credit line when we are teens, and if we do not the lenders are often suspicious. The lenders do not have an idea and can only base their judgments of you on assumptions. Can I assume this person will make monthly payments on time? Has this person taken for granted a loan from a friend or family member in the past and there are no records available for me to see if it is true? There are many reasons that lenders will refuse you a loan if you do not have a credit history. The best solution is starting up a line of credit now, pay off your dues on time and avoid making purchases on items you do not really need. Staying out of debt means regulating your money each month and paying your bills on time.

Repairing Your Credit Yourself

Having a bad credit rating can be a serious problem affecting people’s lives in all kinds of ways. Quite apart from making it more difficult to obtain credit, a poor credit rating will mean that the costs of the credit you manage to be approved for will be much higher, meaning you’ll have less money to spend on the more enjoyable parts of life.

There’s no doubt that most people with credit problems would happily clean up their credit ratings if they could, and there are indeed thousands of websites claiming that it’s easy to repair your credit. Some of these claims are at best dubious, while others are even downright illegal.

Unfortunately, there’s no ‘magic bullet’ you can use to repair an impaired credit rating, at least while staying within the law. That doesn’t mean, however, that you’re stuck with poor credit and that there’s nothing you can do. There are a few simple strategies you can use to begin to improve the situation.

Firstly, you need to get hold of your credit record. The big credit reference agencies share data among themselves, so it doesn’t really matter which one of them you request a copy of your file from – they’ll all contain much the same information.

Once you’ve obtained a copy of your file, look through it and examine every entry. Is there anything on there that looks wrong? It’s not impossible for your file to have information on it that’s out of date, or simply incorrect. It’s your legal right to challenge any incorrect details on your file, and have them corrected if neccessary.

Make sure that any unpaid debts listed actually apply to you and not someone else – a previous occupant of your address, for example. Also make sure that any defaults you’ve since cleared are listed as being satisfied. While this won’t remove the default from your file completely, it will lessen the impact on your rating.

The next step is to look if you have any outstanding debts which you could clear without too much trouble. Often, a debt will go unpaid during times of financial troubles, which could be paid off later on when your money situation improves. Clearing these small debts will also greatly improve your creditworthiness.

Once you’ve cleaned up your credit file as much as possible, and removed as much negative information as you can, it’s time to start focusing on the positive – you need to get some ‘good’ entries on your credit file to counteract any ‘bad’ entries that remain.

The best way to do this is to apply for some kind of financial service that you’ll be approved for, such as a credit card aimed at people with poor credit scores, or even one of the secured or prepay cards which offer close to 100% acceptance, also making sure that the company issuing the card reports back to the credit reference agencies.

As you use the card responsibly in the future, keeping up your repayments, then this will be entered onto your credit file. Over time, you’ll find that your credit rating will begin to improve, allowing you to move on to more mainstream, cheaper, credit options.

Credit Repair Through Counseling

Like many other things in life, budgeting is a skill. Some people are better then others at managing their income and keeping in good standing in regards to their debts. Almost all of us have some sort of debt at any given time: a credit card bill, and outstanding loan, or a mortgage. By managing these debts properly, you will maintain a good credit rating which will allow you to continue to receive credit in the future.

If you fail to make timely payments towards your loans – or worse, you let them go in default – you will find yourself stuck with a poor credit rating, which will rob you of many economic opportunities. In order engage in credit repair, you must slowly build your credit rating back up again. One thing that can help you do this is to seek the help of a credit counselor. In general, credit counseling is performed by non-profit agencies, and is not to be confused with for-profit credit repair companies. The latter should be avoided. Credit repair companies have a reputation for being scams, especially those ones who advertise online. Even if it doesn’t turn out to be a scam, it’s likely that a credit repair company will do nothing that you can’t do yourself: they’ll direct you to obtain your credit report and challenge all negative items on it, and may even suggest you attempt illegal activities like getting a “new” credit rating thorough a different address. In contrast, a credit counseling service will only provide advice, and in a context that precludes a profit motive.

This is the best and most intelligent way to engage in credit repair. To deny that rebuilding your credit rating will be a long process requiring time and discipline is to do yourself a disservice, and a credit counselor will help you make the long term plans and decisions you need to in order to engage in effective credit repair. Most good credit counseling organizations will provide you with advice and workshops, as well as educational materials. They will help you learn to both make and stick to a budget, which over the long term will be extremely beneficial to your credit rating. They will also be able to provide you with one-on-one counseling, so you can examine and learn to make good economic decisions based on your particular credit experience. The problem with credit repair companies – and the reason you should be suspicious of them – is that they propose a quick, one size fits all solution.

Anyone who claims they can quickly fix your credit without knowing anything about the situation is not being truthful. A credit councilor can be crucial in providing exactly the kind of particular attention that a credit repair company will avoid. Most importantly, if you engage in credit repair by using a councilor, your solutions will be more long term, because you will be learning how to manage your budget more effectively, and making permanent changes to your spending habits. This is far preferable to paying a credit repair company that promises a quick solution that is of no educational value to you.