Should You Rasie Your Credit Score?
I came across a post that gives 7 steps to raise your credit score.
OK, here are the highlights of this post I found entitled 7 Tips for Raising Your Credit Score:
1. Pay your bills on time and every time.
Nothing wrong with this, that is one of the ways to stay debt-free.
2. Dispute inaccurate information on your credit report.
According to author, up to 40 percent of people have bad information on their credit reports.
3. Monitor your credit report regularly, at least once a year.
Just head over to AnnualCreditReport to review your free annual credit report from the Big Three. You will have a lot of pop ups and offers, just say no thanks.
4. Do not close old accounts, even if you no longer use them.
As long as you are not paying yearly fees on a credit card, then you could leave it open. But if you are on a budget, you shouldn't be using a credit card.
5. Do not try to open too many new accounts at once.
As I said before the idea of being on a budget is that you do not spend more than you make. Therefore, there is no reason for you to open ANY accounts.
6. Never charge more than 30% of your available credit on any of your cards.
This is one of the reasons why there is a subprime mortgage market. People with bad credit, looking for more credit.
7. If your credit score is low, consider getting a secured credit card.
A good budget with a fully funded emergency fund, can keep you away from credit card use and debt. I was looking for work for four months after retiring from the Navy last year and I was still able to support a family of 11 on our regular budget amounts because of a full emergency fund.
Don't even be tempted to sign up for a credit repair company, the only things that you can remove from your credit report are inaccuracies. If something is not right, you have the right to challenge it by writing to that credit bureau that reported it and say the item is inaccurately reported. The Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act gives them 30 days to fix the item or remove the entry. You can send a letter certified mail to take care of it.
Do you know what your credit score really is? It is your "I Love Debt" score. The only way you get a big FICO score is to get in debt, stay in debt and make a lot of debt payments.
Labels: credit, credit score, Debt, emergency fund
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Posted By: Joe on Wednesday, July 30, 2008
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