Ways to Repair or Improve Your Credit Score

January 24, 2008
Now that the rules for loan qualification are changing, it is more important that ever to have good credit. Ads are proliferating from credit repair consultants and so are credit scam artists. In an article by Ilyce Glink in Inman News, she offers suggestions on repairing your credit rating. The following are a few of her suggestions.
1)"Pull a copy of your credit history from http://www.annualcreditreport.com/. Sponsored by the three credit-reporting bureaus, Equifax, Experian and Transunion, this site is the only place to go to get a truly free copy of your credit history."
2)"Check your credit history thoroughly. ...Some credit reports have serious errors in them, so fixing these will boost your credit score."
3)"Negotiate with your creditors for a lower interest rate. Paying less in interest means more of your payment goes toward paying down your balance. Check out sites like http://www.cardratings.com/ and http://www.cardtrak.com/ to compare credit card offers. Just be sure you read the fine print. Some credit cards require you to charge on the new account each month."
4) Pay everything on time, even if you can only make the minimum payment. The most crucial component of your credit history and credit score is your ability to pay your bills on time each month."
5)"Don't charge more than 25% of your maximum available credit limit...You're better off spreading out your debt between three or four different cards than having all piled on one card."
6)"Don't open and close a lot of accounts..."
7)"Don't share credit (except with a spouse)."
It generally will take a full year to substantially improving your credit score. As with any desire to change your behavior, the time to start is now.