Posts Tagged ‘raise my credit score’
Efficient Ways to Improve Your Credit
If you are one of the many Americans with less than perfect credit, don’t feel helpless. There are quite a few things that you can do to improve your credit rating. First off you should order all three of your credit reports. All three of the main credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, and Transunion) will send you a free copy of your credit report. Make sure to request a copy from all three. All three reports will contain different information as companies that report your credit items are not required to report and sometimes only report to one or two of the three credit bureaus. By getting a copy of all three of your reports you will be able to increase your credit scores at all three of the credit bureaus. You can request a copy of your free report by phone, through the mail or on the internet.
Once you have all three copies off your reports go through each one of them diligently. You want to make sure that everything on the report is reporting accurately. Check the dates, amounts, balances etc. If you find any mistakes highlight them so you can contact the correct credit reporting agency to have them fix your credit mistakes that you find. Each of the reports will have information on the back as to how to contact the credit bureaus to fix these mistakes. If you don’t find any mistakes then that is great! Do not be overwhelmed by the information on your credit report. After some time you will become familiar with all the terms you find on them.
After you are done looking at your report for errors you should review all the companies that inquired into you credit history to offer you credit. Usually this list is towards the end of the reports. You will find a list of loan companies, credit card agencies and any one else that ordered a copy of your credit report in an effort to extend you credit or offer you a job. You should remove your self from the lists that certain companies look at to offer you unsolicited credit. You can doing that by “opting out” at www.optoutprescreen.com.
The final thing you should look at one your credit reports is your available balance to credit limit ratio. This is the amount of your revolving (usually credit card) balances compared to the limit you have. Thirty percent of your credit score is based off of this percentage. You want your ratio to be lower than thirty percent for each account and also total. So in example if you have a discover card with a 10,000 limit try to maintain a balance of less then 3000 at all times. Sometimes you can request an increase to your credit limit. By doing so you can effectively lower your ratio just like paying down your balance. Since thirty percent of your score is at risk pay close attention to these numbers at any time you are thinking about applying for more credit as they have a significant impact on your credit scores and your ability to obtain new credit.
Please note that when you are working to make changes to your credit rating, it can take anywhere from one to two months before those new changes will take effect. If you are in need of obtaining credit please allow yourself ample time. For Professional Credit Repair make sure to check out Lexington Law Firm.
Tags: equifax, experian, improve credit rating, improve credit score, improve your credit, raise credit score, raise my credit score, raise your credit scores, repair credit score, transunion