Thursday, December 6, 2007

Credit score improvement tips

Improving credit score can save a lot of money for you. Your credit score indicates your credit worthiness, how well you pay back your credits sometimes called as Fico score. The higher the credit score you have the healthier situation will be for you about getting loans or credit cards. Try to bring your credit score above 620. And if your credit score is below 600, you will have problems in getting loan. And in case you are able to get loan with a low credit score, the interest rate being charged will be quite high.


And if you have credit score above 760, you will have to pay the lowest rate of interest. 850 is a perfect score a consumer can get and 723 is an average credit score. Under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, you can get a free copy of your credit report from the Credit Reporting Bureaus annually. The Fair Credit Reporting Act also gives us the right to get our credit score from these credit reporting companies. For this they are allowed to charge a reasonable fee which is approx $15 for your scores.


There are some steps you can follow to improve your current credit score:



  • Try to maintain a long and healthy credit history. Keep your old credit card accounts alive and pay your bills on time. And in case there is some credit crisis, at least pay the minimum changes.

  • Managing too many credit cards can be a tedious task. So keep fewer credit cards and make a habit of saying No to the new credit card offers. Maintain a good credit limit.

  • Check your credit report and make sure that it does not have errors and if there are some errors report them to the credit reporting agencies.

  • Never try to suddenly open or close your accounts, as that will create a suspicion that you are trying to manipulate your credit report.

  • Do not use credit cards where you have the cash to pay

  • Try to keep your credit card balance low and in case you keep that max that will lower your credit score

  • Do not open a credit card you do not need. Opening a new account lower your credit score by an average of 10 points

  • Do not close your unused accounts as closing them will delete the established credit history. If you have a card with a five-year of established history, hang on to it.

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