With this downward economy, it is no surprise that millions have poor credit scores. Fortunately, these tips and tricks will provide useful insight into ways that you can work toward a healthier credit score.
Financing homes can be made more difficult when your credit score is low. You should consider getting a FHA loan they are backed by the government. Even if an individual does not have money for the down payment to purchase real estate or pay closing costs, FHA loans may still work.
If you have a poor credit history and can’t qualify for a credit card, get a secured card. Anyone can get one, but you must load money onto the card as a type of “collateral”. Even though this card will be secured by your own money, you will make payments and manage it as if it were unsecured. This will improve your credit as you show yourself able to make the payments on time.
Credit Score
If you credit score is good, you should have no problem purchasing a house and obtaining a mortgage. By paying off your mortgage on time, you will even improve your credit score further. Owning a home is a great thing to have to help with your credit score. The house secures your finances and adds to your assets. If you have to borrow some money, you will need this.
To improve your credit rating, set up an installment account. You are required to meet a monthly minimum, so be sure that you can make the payments. Handling an installment account correctly will help you improve your credit score in a short period of time.
If you want to fix your credit avoid companies claiming they can remove all of your issues, even those properly reported. Bad marks on your report will not go away for seven years. However, information that is not correct can be removed.
Requesting that your credit card limits be lowered can benefit you. This will prevent you from spending too much that you do not have. It will also show the credit companies how responsible you are, and if you do need to get more credit in the future, you will have a much easier time.
Consider joining a credit union. They offer a lot of benefits to their members and it can be easier to obtain a line of credit from them. These credit unions can probably give you better credit options in the long run.
In order to get a hold on your credit, focus on closing all accounts except one. Making one monthly payment will be easier than paying off different bills. This way you can work on paying one credit card balance off, instead of a bunch of smaller ones.
Be certain to get any credit repayment plan in writing. Having the plan in writing will protect you if the creditor reneges on the plan or if your debt is transferred to another creditor. When the debt is eventually paid or settled in full, you should request documentation of this and forward copies to the primary credit reporting companies.
Try not to file bankruptcy if at all possible. Bankruptcy will be noted on the credit report for 10 years, afterwards you must rebuild from scratch. Though the idea of ridding yourself of debt can sound appealing, the long term consequences just aren’t worth it. You may never get a line of credit for any purchases you might need to make if you go ahead, give up on repairing your credit and file for bankruptcy.
To show that you are serious about improving your credit, start systematically lowering all of your account balances. Pay down the cards with the largest balances and interest rates first. This effort will show the credit card companies that you are trying to pay your bills and be responsible.
Read every credit cart statement you receive in full. Errors are not as rare as you might think. Really analyze the purchases on your card to make sure you are not receiving any errant charges for items you never purchased. You bear the responsibility for looking after your own best interests, and you are the only person who will know if your statement is accurate.
Credit Score Repair
Make sure the credit score repair agency is reputable. As with most industries nowadays, there are a number of shady companies offering credit score repair. Slimy operators are quite common, so beware of credit repair scams. If you read enough reviews, you can find out which ones are good and which are bad.
Lenders do not care about the reason you have negative information on your credit report. Having some positive credit history is the only way that negative reports can be counteracted when lenders are analyzing your credit liability. It is possible that this can be detrimental by drawing closer scrutiny to your report.
Now that we have gone over the different ways you can go about repairing credit, why not get started now? Put the ideas in this article into action to improve your credit before it starts hurting you.