Improving Credit Score,
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The key is to constantly have 5 to 7 open tradelines working for you at a steady pace. Improving your credit score can be done pretty quickly if you know how to make your credit work for you.
Let's say you have a mortgage payment, car payment and 3 credit cards that make up 5 open tradelines on your credit report. The mortgage payment and car payments aren't really going to change, unless you have an adjustable rate mortgage, but the credit card payments will fluctuate depending on your balances.
The key is to keep each individual balance at less than 50% of the limit that you can actually put on the credit cards. This will help improve your credit score.
If you have one credit card with a $5,000 limit, you should never have a balance of more than $2,500 on that one credit card. Financial institutions look at your credit limits and the balances that you have on your revolving credit in order to see how close to being maxed out you are.
And if you think you can charge over the 50% mark and pay it down quickly so that no one ever knows it, you're wrong. Your credit report will have a column that tells all viewing eyes what the maximum amount was that you ever had on that credit card so limit yourself to 50% max!
Increasing your credit limits is a good way of Improving Credit Score as long as you are not using all that is available to you. It makes you look responsible and shows that you know not to get in over your head.
Typically, a revolving credit line can be increased every 6 months or so. Just don't go crazy trying to increase all of the time because chances are, each time you ask for an increase, your credit will be looked at.
Every time you apply for credit, your credit report is being pulled and the more inquiries on your credit report, the more desperate you look and the lower your score can go. Yes, your scores can go down every time you have a credit pull.
If you are looking at your own credit through a company like
AnnualCreditReport.com,
you are not putting your score at risk because you are not actually applying for credit. And if you do check your own credit, which we highly recommend, you may find errors. If you do, make sure you contact the
Credit Bureaus!
Another mistake that some people make is they get themselves into debt, eventually pay it off or file for bankruptcy, and then never use credit again.
Using credit + working credit = Improving Credit Score. Remember, Good credit is essential to any business!
As a quick re-cap, ways of improving credit score - try to have about 5 to 7 open tradelines constantly working your credit. Do not charge more than 50% of your limits. Try to increase your limits when you can, but do not apply for a lot of credit on a constant basis.
Oh and just in case the obvious was missed, pay these bills on time! You never want to pay a bill 30 days or more beyond it's due date because that is when it is going to show up as a negative mark on your credit report.
