Concerned about improving my credit score

Hi

Welcome to the forums.

Credit ratings are keenly analyzed whenever you apply for credit card or mortgage or even when you are looking for a job. Depending upon your credit reporting, stores accept your checks, banks issue credit or debit cards and you can bag the best job offers.

If you are having a poor credit score, lenders will charge higher rates of interest on the credit being lent to you. But a person with high credit scores will pay less money in interests. It is always necessary to improve the scores because the difference in interests ultimately makes a large impact on the payments that you make monthly.

Following these tips will help you in improving your credit scores.

Check for incorrect entries - It is mandatory to check your credit report for any mistakes from all the three credit reporting agencies. You can review your report for at least once in a year as well as several months before you apply for a loan.

Timely payments It will be considered a very good practice if you always pay your bills on time. Your prompt payments will put you in a much comfortable position before you apply for a loan. This point is emphasized because a late or missed payment just before applying for a loan lowers the credit score and has worse impact than a missed payment five years ago.

Bring credit balance to the minimum - It is always beneficial to reduce the credit card balances as much as possible. The FICO scores get affected due to how much money you owe on some cards relative to your total credit limit. Credit scores are seen improving if the balances are kept below 25% of the credit card limit.

Don't linger your payments It is suggested not to increase the ratio by closing an account and transferring the remaining balance to another account since the ratio of the credit card balance is linked to the credit limit. Doing this will lower the credit score which should not be generally done while you are on your way to increase your credit score.

Unused accounts to be kept active - While you are applying for a loan, it is suggested not to close any unused account. At the same time, it is suggested not to open a new account also during that time. It is said because if you are having a short credit history or less number of accounts, the credit score gets lowered when a new account is opened as there is no proven track record of it.

Please do let us know your feedback. We will appreciate your comments and suggestions for the community welfare.

Regards
Roxette