Megan McGinnis' Blog–Get Connected!

By Angella Raisian

Credit Repair Tips:

So what are some specific tips for boosting or improving your credit score?

Amounts Owed Tips

• Keep balances below 30% on credit cards and other “revolving credit”
• Pay off debt rather than moving it around
• Don’t close unused credit cards – keep them open and use them once every few months
• Don’t open a number of new credit cards that you don’t need, just to increase your available credit – that will actually lower your credit score

Length of Credit History Tips

• Don’t open a lot of new accounts too rapidly – that will lower your average account age, which will lower your score

New Credit Tips

• Do your rate shopping for a given loan within a focused period of time – FICO scores distinguish between a search for a single loan and a search for many new credit lines, in part by the length of time over which inquiries occur
• Re-establish your credit history if you have had problems – Opening new accounts responsibly and paying them off on time will raise your credit score in the long term.
• It’s OK to request and check your own credit report – It won’t affect your score as long as you order your credit report directly from the credit reporting agency. www.AnnualCreditReport.com will provide you with one credit report per year from each of the 3 agencies: TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian

Types of Credit Use Tips

• Apply for and open new credit accounts only as needed – Don’t open accounts just to have a better credit mix – it  won’t raise your credit score
• Do not use or open Department Store cards – you are better off having credit card accounts

Get some goodwill

• If you’ve been a good customer, a lender might agree to simply erase that one late payment from your credit history -  make the request in writing.  It can’t hurt to ask
• Ask that accounts be “re-aged.” If the account is still open, the lender might erase previous delinquencies if you make a series of 12 or so on-time payments

www.AngellaRaisian.com

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you found this helpful.