Archive for September, 2008

Credit Score Repair. Fixing your credit score.

Your credit score is important to your credit report

If you want to increase your credit score, you will need to clean up your credit file. This process will take both time and patience.

Your first step to credit score repair is to get a copy of all three credit reports. Besides reviewing and correcting your credit file, you should also take care of your credit file starting from day one. Do the following:

Minimize credit inquiries

Pay bills early

Pay off revolving cards monthly

Never close a credit account

Don’t switch credit cards to get the best rate

Keep the oldest credit account on your credit report

No more than 2 major bank cards

No more than 50% of your revolving credit limit

If you have derogatory marks on your credit report do all that you can to have them removed. What if the bad marks on your file are not in error? Does this mean there is nothing you can do about it? You can demand verification of ANY entry on your credit report.

When you challenge any item on any of your three reports, the only two things a credit bureau can do is uphold the entry validity or delete it. You must go through this process with each bureau.

For credit score repair, any item, regardless of its age, can be challenged. This includes: tax liens, bankruptcies, three and four year old entries, as well as many other deletions. You can challenge EVERYTHING.

Credit score repair will now pave the way for you to rebuild your credit rating, which is important to your future so don’t delay.

Article Source : http://credit-repair-basics.credit-repair-forums.com/credit-score-repair/credit-score-repair.html

You may be out of school, but that doesn’t mean you’re free from report cards. In fact, if you want to buy a house, a car or any other big-ticket item, a lender will look up your “grade” as soon as you come knocking. That grade is your credit score.

Generally speaking, a credit score measures the likelihood you’ll repay what you owe, and it is based on information in your credit report.

The rewards of raising your score speak directly to your wallet: You’ll qualify for more loans and be offered better interest rates.

There are many varieties of credit scores available to lenders. But the most widely used for large loans are FICO scores, which are based on a scoring system developed by Fair, Isaac & Co., and which are provided to lenders by the three national credit bureaus - Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

Consumers may now get their FICO score or a comparable version of it from each of the bureaus. It pays to review these scores at least three to six months before shopping for a loan so you’ll have time to improve your standing before approaching a lender.

Following are five things you can do to boost your creditworthiness, plus more information on obtaining your personal score.

5 steps to better credit

Correct blatant mistakes. Your credit score is only as good as what shows up in your credit report. Review your reports from all three credit bureaus for accuracy once a year as well as several months before applying for a loan. Changing a mistake on your report - such as a payment that is wrongly labeled as late — can take 30 days to three months, sometimes longer.

Pay your bills on time. This is always a good practice, and it’s especially critical that you make prompt payments close to the time you need a loan. That’s because a late or missed payment in the last few months is likely to lower your score much more than an isolated late payment five years ago.

Reduce your credit card balances. A heavily weighted factor in your FICO score is how much money you owe on your credit cards relative to your total credit limit. Generally, it’s good to keep your balances at or below 25 percent of your credit card limit, said Jeanne Kelly, founder of The Kelly Group in Brookfield, Conn., which helps clients improve their credit scores.

Article source : http://money.cnn.com/2002/02/15/debt/q_fivethings_creditscore/

TopOfBlogs Finance Top Blogs