How to Increase a Low Credit Score

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 19:34:24 GMT

Take the time to check out your credit score. You can request a free copy every 12 months of your credit report from all 3 credit consumer credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. At that time you can purchase your credit score as well. Is your credit score low? Take action to increase it NOW!

Review your credit report for any errors. If you can prove the error through documentation, send a dispute letter. Check each credit reporting company site to find out the process for disputing errors in your report.

Pay all your bills on time. This is extremely important. Late payments will instantly decrease your score. Having 3-4 months of on-time payments will help get that score up.

Pay down the largest balance first. Charges that are more than 50 percent of your credit limit will decrease your score. Once you have your balances decreased, keep them low.

Keep your accounts open. Do not cancel credit cards. Surprising? Not really. One-third of your score is based on the amount of credit you have vs. your credit balance. Closing accounts will decrease your available credit. It is better to pay off the card and just not use it. Once you have increased your credit score, you can use the card for minimum purchases to keep the credit history open on the account.

By taking the above action, you will immediately increase your credit score. Over time, if you keep your credit card balances low and pay your bills on time, your score will increase even more.

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Re: How to Increase a Low Credit Score

MidnightVoice — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 19:38:57 GMT

pixie wrote:

For more information on credit cards and compare offers, please visit The Leading Site For Credit Card Comparisons

Or even better, read Credit Scoring 101 and listen to the people here!!

Re: How to Increase a Low Credit Score

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 02:18:36 GMT

"Pay down the largest balance first. Charges that are more than 50 percent of your credit limit will decrease your score."

I personally have never had any indication that utilization is calculated and scored in any other way than total balance over all cards / total limits of all cards. My strategy currently is to pay down highest interest first. This allows me to minimize money paid to interest, and it reduces my number of outstanding cards quicker.

topic How to Increase a Low Credit Score in Understanding FICO® Scoring

How to Increase a Low Credit Score

Re: How to Increase a Low Credit Score

Re: How to Increase a Low Credit Score