Credit Score

Credit Score, Is Yours High Enough?

If you filed for bankruptcy one would had to figure out what was needed to do to improve your credit score.  Establishing a good FICO credit score isn’t all that difficult; all you have to do is pay your bills on time.  There are many ways to raise your credit score and sadly many consumers are in a position where they need to raise their credit score due to failing to pay their current bills in a timely fashion.

For example, if your credit score is 580 you are probably going to pay nearly three percentage points more in mortgage interest than someone who had a score of 720.  The assistance of a mortgage professional to help you to understand your credit report and offer suggestions on how to improve your score is invaluable.  If you are turned down for a loan or for rental housing because of negative information on your credit report, you may need to repair credit score.

If you don’t recognize information for lenders on your free credit report and you have a need to repair credit score based on their reporting, ask the credit bureau for more information on that lender so you can contact them directly and find out what the derogatory report, applies to.  Since your credit score is based on your credit report,  you need to begin by knowing what’s contained in the credit report and whether it’s accurate.  Using a complex matrix measuring over 30 different variables in an individual’s credit profile, the Fair Isaacs program converts the profile into a numeric score which is added to an individual’s credit report.

It’s a good idea to purchase the Credit Score Report along with the free Credit File Disclosure report to get an overall picture of your credit profile.  Under federal law, you’re also entitled to a free report if a company takes adverse action against you, such as denying your application for credit, insurance or employment, and you request your report within 60 days of receiving notice of the action.  Since it is your credit report, you’re entitled to requesting a copy of it from one or all three of the major credit bureaus.

The first step is to get a copy of your merged credit report, which shows all three of the major bureaus, Experian (formerly TRW), Equifax (formerly CBI), and Trans-Union.  The first step you need to take to improve your credit score is to get your credit reports from all three of the major credit reporting agencies:  Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian.  Finance providers, rental agencies, car dealers, insurance companies and credit card companies are not going to help you improve your credit score.

Also, there are three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies where you can purchase a copy of your credit score report.  The nation’s three consumer credit reporting companies - Equifax, Experian and TransUnion - today jointly announced the introduction of a new credit score designed to simplify and enhance the credit process for both consumers and credit grantor’s.

Had you done your homework by checking your credit score ahead of time, you would have known your actual credit score and you could have pointed out that the salesman’s assessment of your credit score was incorrect.  One final word of caution every time you fail to successfully pay off a debt in the required time frame it does count against your credit score and stays on your credit record for up to seven years.  In essence, a credit score tracks how well a person incurs debt and how good that person is at paying the bills on time.

When your credit score is accumulated, each item is passed through a system where points are either awarded or deducted based on the status of the terms.

Comments

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.