How to Increase Your Credit Score
Credit Scores
The most important factor when considering one’s credit score is paying your creditors on-time each and every month. In addition, you should strive to keep your balances low if you don’t pay off your balances every month.
I would advise if you cannot pay in full each month, do not buy what you cannot afford. If you must do not extend payments beyond six months. The exception of course would be car loans; keep those payment (term) 48 months or less.
Keep your percentage of revolving credit (credit cards) to 30 % or less. 10 % or less will even be better. Though I find this portion of credit scores a bit silly; if creditors don’t want high credit utilization why don’t they only approve a smaller credit line and change that factor to 70 %?
Keep your old credit lines open and don’t be tempted to close unused credit cards as they may impact your credit utilization percentage in a negative way.
If shopping for additional credit, that being credit cards or auto loans, make all your applications within a short period of time.
Forget about credit repair firms, they are a waste of your money and time. Deal directly with your creditor if you foresee a problem.
Check your credit files with each of the three major credit bureaus once a year. You can request your credit history for free by going to AnnualCreditReport.com.
Another alternative is to sign up for a free account with CreditKarma.com which will monitor your credit history and scores from two of the three credit bureaus on a weekly basis.
The credit scores that CreditKarma.com and the bureaus provide are not your FICO score and can be significantly different. So keep that in mind when evaluating your credit worthiness.
You can get your FICO scores directly through the company (for a fee) or you may find that your credit card company provides it for free on your monthly statement (Discover Card).
Daniel F. Iuculano, AAMS CMFC
Accredited Asset Management Specialist
Chartered Mutual Fund Counselor