Whether you are trying to get a business or real estate loan, looking to buy equipment for your business, or trying to lease a computer or auto, your credit score or “FICO” is very important. Having a high score will allow you to get loans of all kinds much faster. It will help you to get a lower rate of interest on the loans you want and it will allow you to receive faster service from the lenders you contact. It’s important to keep your credit score high and there are steps you can take to insure that your credit score is as high as possible.

If you are a business owner, you may be using credit card lines of credit to finance your business or real estate deals. If you are doing this or plan to it’s even more important that you pay attention to your credit score.

One way you can keep your credit score high is to pay off all credit card debt on time or, if possible, ahead of time. By never being late with your monthly payment you can raise your credit score by 15 to 20 points. Also make sure all loan payments for personal, mortgage, car, home equity loans are made on time and for the full amount due. Just by being late on one or more loans can cost you as much as 100 points from your credit score.

If you use credit cards, make sure that you don’t have more than four open accounts. Having more than four credit card accounts can reduce your credit score by 10 or more points. The reason for this is that credit card issuers are afraid that people with a large number of cards are more likely to run up more debt than they are able to pay back.

If you are seeking a loan, make sure you do not allow a credit report to be run on you until a competent Loan Officer at the lender assures you that chances are good that you will be approved for the loan and you are certain that you will be going ahead with the loan application from that lender. Having multiple credit reports run on your account can cause your credit score to go down.

If you are planning several large purchases, like a home, car and furniture, stagger your purchases. Getting a larger number of loans in a short time period can negatively affect your credit score by 10 points or more.

Also, look into making deals with private lenders. Such deals may not be recorded in public records and therefore won’t affect you credit score.

So what’s a good credit score? You should aim for a credit score of 750. Once there you should do what you can to keep it there. Remember, it’s always important to pay your creditors on time every month. Don’t borrow more than you need to and make sure you pay your creditors back according to the agreement you have with them.

To sum up, your credit score is important and you need to take action to make sure that you will be able to borrow money when you need it. If you currently have a low credit score don’t be discouraged. Take action. Start doing the things that will cause your credit score to improve. Be consistent and before you know it you will have better credit.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to Credit Reports

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Fair Isaac Corporation uses 22 pieces of data collected from the three major credit bureaus to produce a FICO score (your credit score) with the lowest possible score of 300 and 850 as the highest possible score. There are 5 weighted categories used to determine your score.

• Payment history 35%
• Debt 30%
• Length of Credit history 15%
• New Credit 10%
• Types of Credit used 10%

The two largest factors in obtaining a high credit score is to make sure you pay on time and keep your debt load low. The sad reality is only 13% of all Americans have a FICO score above 800. This means most Americans are paying more money for the exact same items.

Let me make my point with this car purchase example:

Very Good Score (800)
Loan amount $35,000
Term: 48 months
Interest Rate: 3%
Payment: $775

Average score (700)
Loan amount $35,000
Term: 48 months
Interest Rate: 9%
Payment: $871

This means the customer with an average score will pay $96 more a month for the exact same car. Over the life of the loan that extra $96 equals $4608 extra! Imagine if this was a mortgage! The dollar amounts would in the hundreds of thousands.

So what’s next?

Get focused and realize the lower your FICO score the more you will pay for items bought with credit or loans. This is equivalent to being a second class citizen right here in the Untied States of America. It’s time to fight back and recapture your good credit.

• Pay on time!
• Take action to reduce your debt. (Don’t just pay the minimum on your credit cards.)
• Don’t close old accounts.
• Don’t open new lines of credit.

It takes time and discipline to increase or maintain a high credit score, but the cost of not doing so is dramatic. A higher FICO score is in reach. Begin with the four “next steps” listed above and over time your score should improve.

Robert Hill is a Staff writer for:
http://www.havegoodcredit.com
http://www.havegoodcredit.com/blog/

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Improving yourself is always a good thing. If you thrive hard to become a better public speaker, you can might yourself a promotion. Exercising and going to the gym can help you lose weight and have the figure you have always wanted. But the best thing of all is improving and building your credit score ‘ this can help you save hundreds and thousands of dollars on your biggest purchases.

For some, it may be hard to keep up a good credit score but actually, improving credit is not that hard to achieve. You just need to be patient and learn a little bit about the credit scoring system and how it works.

A person who is patient and willing to improve their credit profile can do it easily. There are five things that they can follow in order to boost their credit scores.

1. Check your own credit report from time to time. It is necessary to regularly check your credit and take the steps to remove any inaccuracies in your credit report. Sometimes bad credit is caused by simple inaccuracies in the report. If you see something, contact your creditor immediately, and work to correct the error as soon as you can. Leaving an inaccuracy on your report counts against you.

2. Be on time with payments. Literally, it means that you have to pay all your bills on time. If you are always late with your payments, it will affect your credit report and score. Also, collections and bankruptcies have the most negative effect on your credit report. All reports including the late payments are noted and written in your credit report.

3. Learn how to manage your debt. You must maintain the balance of your credit report to 35% of your available credit limit. Make sure that you always watch your accounts and estimate if you can still handle the using more credit.

4. Avoid unnecessary inquiries. Every time you make an inquiry, it is written in your credit report. Even if you have no plan to open a credit account, your inquiry records will show how often someone has looked at your report, and will cast doubt on your ability to pay. So as much as possible, do not make an inquiry into your credit report unless it is important.

5. Give yourself time. Time is considered one of the most significant aspects that can help improve your credit score. Time management is important to get yourself on the right track and show that you can handle your credit responsibly. You can also keep even the oldest account open in order to help make your credit use look longer.

Stu Pearson has an interest in Business and Finance related topics. To access more information on free credit report or on credit score, please click on the links.

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