Basic tips for improving your credit score
November 19, 2008 by Jennifer Chait
Filed under Consumer Information, credit
Around the holidays, many folks turn to credit for at least some of their holiday shopping. That said, I figure it’s a good time to go over some basic tips that will keep your credit score in good standing.
Obvious tips:
Pay your bills on time all the time.
Credit is best used as a tool for ease of shopping, or to gather perks, not as a loan. If you can, pay off your cards in full each month.
Keep your balances low – high revolving credit affects your score negatively.
If you miss payments, catch up as fast as you can. The quicker you get back on track, the quicker your score will raise.
Extra tips:
Pay off credit cards before investing in other financial endeavors even retirement and your kids college savings. If you like, save for retirement while paying off creditors, but it makes more sense financially to put more money into credit bills than extra retirement funds.
Closing cards will not (in the short term) raise your score.
Store credit cards may be more trouble than they’re worth for you and your credit score.
The older your accounts (on average) the better your credit score. If you have three decent old accounts, opening two new ones will lower your accounts average age, and possibly your score.
Don’t open too many accounts at once, or make too many credit inquires at once, it can lower your score.
Don’t move your debt around too much. Paying off a card may help you, while moving the balance to a new low interest card and canceling the old can sometimes backfire and lower your score.
Know where you stand – knowing if there is any incorrect info on your report is important. Getting rid of the problem can raise your score. There are plenty of pay for credit score sites online. Two actual decent sites are MyFICO and Equifax; I personally use Equifax, but have pals who do like MyFICO. You can also get one free credit report a year from Annual Credit Report, but it won’t be so in depth as a paid site.
Do you have any handy credit score tips?
[image via stock.xchng]
