Credit Report Score
The higher your credit report score then the better your
interest rate or whatever decision results you are
desiring will be. And contrary to popular belief you
really can have a perfect credit score, but if you do
you are probably either The Father, The Son, or The Holy
Ghost! In other words, divine intervention is required.
But you can get close to the elusive 850 perfect score.
So the hunt for the perfect score begins by knowing
where you stand right now. So you must get a copy of
your credit score. You can get your credit report either
by writing for your free copy or even calling. When you
recieve your score which is sometimes called your FICO
score, or also called your Beacon score depending on
which agency is sending you the report, you must
obviously review it to see what is on it and that way
you can map out a plan to determine what can be done to
improve your score.
WARNING! Do not just start paying off bills thinking
this will increase your score. There are a number of
factors that goes into you earning a good credit score
so be sure to know what works and what hurts when you
are looking for how to improve your credit score.`
What Is Considered A Good Credit Score?
The answer is 'it depends'. But the general consensus is
that during a down economy and tight credit, meaning
lending institutions are being very strict about who
they lend to, then you will probably have to have a
score of 720 or higher to get preferred rates. You may
still get loans approved as well as get insurance
approved, but the rates will be higher if you have a
lower than 720 credit score.
Here's why.
Because your credit score is tied into your history of
how you make your payments. This history is the best
predictor of what your payments will be like with the
institution who ran your credit. It is not a perfect
system, but the statistics are pretty compelling that it
really does allow fairly accurate decisions to occur.
Not all the time, but definitely most of the time.
There are a number of small things that can make big
differences in raising your beacon or fico score. First
is to at all cost make your payments on time. And please
recognize that NOT all payments carry the same weight.
For example, if you have a choice between making a
mortgage payment and a car payment, the mortgage payment
will carry more weight and have a longer more negative
impact if it is late than the car payment. But, if you
are making a car payment verses a rent payment, usually
the car payment will carry more weight because a lot of
rent payment history is NOT reported to the credit
agencies.
And here's a couple more tips to help improve your
credit report. Medical bills are reported but most
credit decisions will not take these into serious
consideration in making their decisions, so most often
if the choice is between paying a medical bill verses
another type of bill the medical bill goes last. Now,
this will upset the medical profession and yes this is a
very large contributing factor to the sky-rocketing
medical costs, but this is how the credit reporting
agencies work so please do not shot the messenger and
this is not an endorsement of not paying any obligations
that you should be paying, but merely reporting how the
rules of the system can work for your benefit instead of
against you.
One more tip on how to improve your credit report score.
Always try to keep your credit card balances between 30%
to 35% of the credit limit. Meaning, if you have a 100
dollar limit, never put over 35 dollars on the credit
card at any time. This ratio is what credit reporting
agencies like. And you should note that is is not
recommended that you cancel a credit card even if you
are not using it, because many times this action will
adversely affect your credit report score.
|
|
