Improving your credit score

You can take steps to improve your credit score. There are many variables that come into play with credit scores. Here are some good guidelines.

To get a great score is pay your bills on time, keep account balances low, and take out new credit only when you need it. People who do that faithfully have very high scores. It usually means that you use credit wisely and you are not buried in debt. Start by pulling your credit report to check your credit score to see where you are. What you're looking for on your report are factors that could be affecting your score. Look for errors in the report, such as accounts that aren't yours, late payments that were actually paid on time, debts you paid off that are shown as outstanding, or old debts that shouldn't be reported any longer (negatives are supposed to be deleted after seven years, with the exception of bankruptcies, which can stay for as long as 10 years).

Call or write each credit scoring company with the errors. Sometimes it can take up to four weeks for errors to be corrected. Be sure to have paperwork proving you paid the debt or a letter from the creditor as proof.

After repairing errors, the fastest way to a better score is paying down balances on credit cards. It is possible to increase your score 20 points by paying down your credit lines," because the credit bureaus look at how much debt you owe as compared to how much the available credit is.

If you have had a few late payments in your past get auto deduct from your checking account or savings account. If you find yourself in some financial difficulties, you can protect your score by making sure your payments don't go 29 days past due. Even if you've paid your bills late in the past, you can improve your credit score by paying every bill on time from now on. Though it will take time for the history to show up.

One thing you shouldn't do if you're just trying to boost your score is close unused accounts. It won't help you and it can hurt you. Closing unused accounts without paying down your debt changes a ratio that the credit bureaus look at. The credit bureaus look at the amount of your total debt divided by your total available credit.

When you appear closer to maxing out your accounts your score can drop. Credit scores can sometimes reflect when people are using credit cards and equity lines to stay alive financially.

The length of your credit history is another factor in your score. If you close the account of the credit card you got when you were a freshman in college and leave open the ones you just got within the last couple years, it makes you look like a much newer borrower. Keep a couple of the oldest open. Don't worry about the interest rate is, just don't use that card. Creditors don't care what the rate is., they care about the history and the length the card has been open. Creditors and mortgage companies also like to see three credit lines open for 1 to 2 years. The higher the credit limit the better they like it.

Working with credit card balances is another strategy for bringing up your score: Transfer balances from a card that's close to being maxed out to other cards to even out your usage. Or just spread out your charges between a few cards. Try to get the usage on all of them at 20 to 30 percent instead of a bunch at zero and one at 85 percent. Remember the credit reporting companies drop your score when you get close to maxing out your limit on credit cards. It is better to have 2 or 3 at 33% than one at 90%.

Rapid rescoring If you're in the middle of qualifying for a mortgage and need a score boost in a hurry, you can speed the process along with rapid rescoring. If you've got legitimate negative information on your credit report, such as late payments or accounts in collections, you're out of luck. But the process of rapid rescoring can help increase your score within a few days by correcting errors or paying off account balances.

You can't do this one yourself; you'll need a lender who is a customer of a rapid rescoring service. Generally, the service will run roughly $50 for every account on your credit report that needs to be addressed, but it could save you thousands on your loan. If a consumer can find a lender who is a customer of a rapid rescoring service, new information can be posted within 72 hours.
The bottom line, the experts say, is that you're not powerless when it comes to your credit score.
There are a lot of things you can do to improve your score. For more help email me at info@RussRavary.com or go to my website www.RussRavary.com