Lake Murray Life

Six steps to raising your Credit Score

Just as you should maintain your health through periodic visits to your physician, you should adopt a similar strategy for your financial health, which in many cases is influenced by your FICO score, a three-digit credit rating used to determine the likelihood you will pay back a loan. Credit scores range from 350 (poor) to 850 (excellent). Here are six steps to raise your FICO score:

• Pay bills on time! Your payment history makes up 35% of your FICO score.

• Don’t consolidate and then close out your old, revolving debt accounts. The age of your credit accounts is an important, positive factor for a good credit score.

• Don’t load up a credit card’s debt close to its limit. This weighs negatively on your credit score.

• Pay down high-balances; don’t shuffle debts among several lenders. Keep no more than a balance of 30% of your limit.

• Settle any collections or past-due accounts.

• Dispute and resolve any inaccurate items in your credit report. Time may be your only remedy for mitigating the damage from bankruptcies, foreclosures and other judgments. The last two years of your credit history are the most important.

• Do your credit shopping (mortgage or automobile) over the same 45-day period so that numerous credit applications show up as one inquiry on your credit report. This minimizes the impact to your credit score.

For more information, view “The Credit DVD” , which offers an in-depth look at credit scores.

Comments(1)

Comment by Frank Bruno at 4:39 pm on 25 July 2007 at

I hope this article helps your clients who need to quickly raise their credit scores for the loan approval process or for the best possible interest rates.

How Credit Expert Frank Bruno Raised His Credit Score 40 Points in 24hrs.

Also your clients may be interested in watching Free Credit Tip Videos here

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