Helping Your Credit Score

By Arthur M. Taylor


If you ever want to refinance your home, buy a car or make a large purchase on credit you need to be concerned about FICO scores. The higher the FICO score the better chance you have of getting an excellent rate from the bank you will be using. Most people never pay attention to their FICO scores until they go to the bank to make a loan. This score is the first thing the creditor looks at before starting any paperwork on a loan. To get an excellent loan rate your score should be higher than 650. Anything over 700 is considered adequate and will usually work on getting you an excellent rate.
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As obvious as it seems, paying your bills on time is very important. Something as simple as one 30-day late payment can stay on your credit report for 7 years. A late mortgage payment can hold you back from obtaining a loan for a year or mean the difference between a great interest rate and a poor interest rate. Also weighted heavily are collections, charge-offs, judgments and bankruptcies. These types of issues generally affect your credit rating in the most negative way. It is certainly possible to have these issues corrected in time. The important thing is to become knowledgeable about your credit in order to correct these issues as well as prevent them from occurring in the future.

Maintaining low balances contributes to the second largest factor in your credit score. As a good rule of thumb, it is a good idea to owe approximately 10% of your total credit limits. For instance, if you have a $1,000 line of credit, you should maintain a low balance of $100 on any given month. Owing too much money on accounts shows that you are a risk factor and are unable to pay account balances down. Creditors want to deal with consumers who can show restraint and discipline with credit lines. You want to show creditors that you are responsible and will pay them off in time. You don't want to show that you have a high dependence on credit.

The things that damage your credit score the most are late payments, collections, Bankruptcies, foreclosures, tax liens and judgments. If you have any of these types of credit accounts you will see credit scores in the low 500's and not sufficient to receive a loan from current lenders.It make good sense, if you have a lot of high interest loans, high loan to value credit cards and collections, to refinance your home or take out an equity line and pay off these small loans. This action can raise your FICO score dramatically and make it possible to get approval from a bank for a better loan rate.

There are professional people in the marketplace that specialize in improving your credit scores. It pays to work with these people and get your credit scores raised. Just an increase of one percentage point on your loan of $500,000 can save approximately $20,000 per year.Our credit score can mean the difference between being denied or approved for credit, and a low or high interest rate. A credit rating score can help you qualify for an apartment rental, loan for new home, furniture, new car or even a credit card.Any kind of individual who needs to apply for a major card or financing will have to abide by the rules and regulations required by the creditor. A crucial element for any kind of loan to be authorized is your credit rating score.A FICO score is the determining factor with lenders whether you will be approved for a loan or not. Your existing credit score in addition to your previous credit history is considered in developing a current credit score.

A healthy mix of different accounts is best. You want your credit report to be comprised of credit cards, mortgages and auto loans. You don't simply want to have credit cards listed on your credit report.When a company pulls your credit report to qualify you for credit, this is called an inquiry. An inquiry will stay on your credit report generally for 3 years. It is very important to limit the amount of inquiries on your credit report. Although inquiries only contribute to 10% of your credit score, too many inquiries in a short period of time makes a consumer appear to be out of money and desperate for credit, and this becomes a risk in the eyes of potential creditors. It also implies to creditors that you may be opening new accounts, which as stated above pushes your credit score down.

The bureaus use the information contained in your credit report to calculate your score. The three major credit bureaus use the FICO scoring system, which ranges from 300 to 850.What Exactly is Your Credit Score Made Of? Your credit score is made of five different parts:Payment History (35%) Payment history refers to the ability to pay your bills on time. It represents 35% of your credit score. Your history is considered the best indicator of your future financial behavior. Late payments, missed payments, loan defaults, unpaid taxes, and the worst of all, bankruptcy, will all hurt your score.It's also important the amount of negative events and when these events happened. Newer events affects your score more than older ones. More severe events (like bankruptcy) are worse than less severe events. And many events hurt your score more than only a few of them.

Amounts Owed (30%),Amounts owed represent 30% of your credit score. It refers to the amount of debt you have in comparison to your credit limits. This is also called the "debt to credit ratio" and it works like this:Let's say you have $10,000 available and you only owe $3000, then your ratio is 30%. So the formula for the "debt to credit ratio" is: your debt divided by your available. The lower the ratio, the better for your score,Important: If you have a high ratio, don't apply for more available credit to lower it. It will only hurt your score even more so please don't do that.Credit Length (15%),Credit length represents 15% of your score. The longer your history is the better for your score. This is based on the assumption that your past financial habits are likely to be the same in the future. And if you have a long history, the bureaus can see exactly what your financial behavior is.

The one and most efficient ways of doing this is to peruse through your credit reports; these are detailed reports of your credit activity over the past year or years depending on the time. Look through it to see what lowered your credit score and work to improve it by not doing such things.Settle any outstanding debts,The report will tell you where you have debts and how much you owe whether credit card payday loans. This information will then help you to reduce these debts by paying them off or at least making arrangements on how to pay them if the debt is not within your ability. The fact that you have started on the payments is an improvement on your credit score.

Important: Having different types of credits can help your score but don't go out and get loans if you don't need them. This isn't a significant part in the credit score formula (it only represents 10% of your credit score) so don't get yourself into more debt just to have a better mix of credit.How Can I Improve My Credit Score? Now that you know what a credit score is and where it comes from, the next thing you have to do is to start improving it as soon as possible. The truth is that it won't be an easy task (especially if you have a low one): it will take some time, money and patience but it will be worth it. A few more points could be the difference between buying the home or car that you and your family deserve or not!




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