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5 Ways to improve your credit score

Posted on: 22nd Jul, 2011 01:39 am
There are countless people in the country with bad credit score. If you are one of them and if your FICO credit score is below 620, then it will indeed be very difficult for you to obtain new loans and credit cards with favorable terms and conditions. Again, suppose your credit score is good. In that case, you may be willing to make it better. The better your credit score, less you will pay in interest. If you want to improve your credit score, the first thing that is required is that you should know where you stand exactly. You can get your credit report at free of cost once in a year. Otherwise, you can also get to know your FICO score any time. However, for that you need to pay. Here we discuss some ways to improve your credit score.

Obtain a credit report

First of all, if you want to improve your credit score, you are required to know where you stand in. For that you need to obtain your credit report. You can obtain a copy of your credit report from one of the three major credit bureaus. Once you have obtained your credit report, then you get to know the items which are hurting your score negatively. And, according you can take actions so as to improve your score.

Dispute in case of error

Errors in your credit report, may damage your credit score badly. You have all the rights to dispute, if you find any error in your report. In that case, you can write to the credit bureaus to rectify that error. An inaccurately reported late payment can lower down your credit score by 60 to 110 notches.

Pay off your debt obligations

You clean repayment history adds to your credit score. You need to be very much careful and regular in making your repayments. This indeed helps to maintain or even raise your score. If you have missed out making payments, talk with your creditor, before your creditor takes the help of a collection agency.

Minimize your credit card usage

The more your credit card balances, the less will be your credit score. So, you should make conscious efforts not to increase your credit card balance. You should try to purchase item more by using cash than by using credit card. If you are able to lower down your credit card balance, it will help in credit repair.

Try to raise your income

Apart from your credit score, another thing that the creditors look into is your debt to income ratio. The lower your debt to income ratio, the higher will be your chance to obtain a new loan with favorable terms and vice versa. In order to reduce the ratio, you should put in serious efforts to augment your income. You can think of working part time or start a part time business to raise your income. You can use the additional income to pay off your outstanding debts.

By following the above mentioned tips, you can improve your credit score significantly. This, in turn, helps you obtain new loans at favorable terms.
Although it is a very sound piece of advice to "try to raise your income," it has no direct bearing on credit score. Debt to income ratios are not considered when calculating credit scores. That's not to say that additional income won't impact your credit, because it certainly would give you the opportunity to repay any debt you might have that's dragging down a score.

So, it's good advice in general, but it's certainly not one of the "5 ways to improve your credit score."
Posted on: 22nd Jul, 2011 07:16 am
I think that increasing your income will help you in improving your debt to income ratio. But as George says it may not have a direct bearing on your credit score. Debt to income ratio won't help a person in improving his/her credit score.
Posted on: 25th Jul, 2011 02:40 am
Bank was going to foreclose and decided to drop the foreclosure said they did not want home said to send 500 a month to a cashiering company just a po box no paperwork phone number or anything. I did for 3 months that was 19 months ago I have not heard a thing. I do not think I should send money to a company without proof. We have a 0 balance on our credit report. An attorney said he would not send money without proof either I know our bank was crooked. I am paying the property taxes.
Posted on: 23rd Aug, 2011 08:21 am
If you are continuing to send any money to a po box that you have no information on whatsoever, then you need to stop doing so. You ought to check with your local bankers...wherever the money is being taken from...to see if you can trace the recipient through them. You are apparently being ripped off.
Posted on: 29th Aug, 2011 08:55 am
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