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How To Improve Your Credit Score

April 18th, 2009

If you want to repair your credit you will need to know about credit scores. A credit score is a number denoting the creditworthiness of an individual based upon the likelihood that this individual will pay his or her obligations. It is based upon a statistical and mathematical analysis of many considerations including the records contained on a credit report, both negative and positive information, the amount of credit available vs. the amount of credit used and open accounts. Increasing your credit score is essential to credit repair.

The credit score most frequently used in the United States is the FICO score. The word FICO is an acronym for the Fair Isaac Corporation, which is a publicly traded corporation. You can find it under the symbol “FIC”. The Fair Isaac Corporation created the first credit scoring system in 1958 and the first credit scoring system for a bank credit card in 1970. While there are other companies that also do credit scoring the FICO score is still the most widely accepted. Appropriate credit repair can improve your FICO score.

Conditions such as late payments, financial problems in the past, current amounts of credit limits compared to credit used are the objective standards used to validate a credit score. Factors such as race, gender, ethnicity and marital status are not regarded. The FICO score is considered to be an unbiased representation of an individual’s creditworthiness. You can increase your FICO score if you take measures to repair your credit and make sure that your credit report does not contain any false or misleading information.

By using credit scores a lender will make the decision on whom they will loan to, how much the interest rate will be and what the credit limits will be. They may also use credit scores to determine if they will require more collateral or require a more extensive income and asset verification. Repairing your credit score can increase your chances of getting credit.

Each of the three major credit reporting agencies, Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax will report variable information based upon the different data that they use, how much value they place upon that data and the diverse statistical methods that they use. Because of this, if you want to repair your credit you will need to get a report from each of the three companies. Most lenders will take an average of the three reports if they track all three or some lenders will just pull from one company.

Make sure that you are not overextending and using too much of your available credit so that your expenses are in line and make sure that your payments are made on a regular schedule. A major factor in credit scoring is a comparison between available credit and credit used. If you want to increase your credit score consider getting approved for a higher limit on your credit yet don’t use much of it.

The time of your credit history, any outstanding revolving credit lines or credits cards and any credit applications count towards your credit score. Every inquiry into your credit will count against you so be (aware|wary of applying for credit or allowing others to run your credit. Also if you decide to discontinue using a credit card do not cancel the account but just put the card away or destroy it. If you cancel the account it will count against you on your credit score. As you are repairing your credit keep these things in mind.

Within 6 months to a year you can impressively improve your credit scores and repair your credit quite a bit. Just be consistent and on time with all of your payments, utilize your credit sparingly and do not apply for credit needlessly. With just a little work and a bit time you can repair your credit.

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  1. March 1st, 2011 at 09:17 | #1

    Gold! you save my day ;)

  1. April 27th, 2009 at 08:27 | #1
  2. April 27th, 2009 at 11:08 | #2