In this article I am going to outline 9 simple steps that can boost your credit score in 30 days or less. Remember that this is a brief eight minute read so I can't go into great detail, but that doesn't mean it won't work! If you read this article and that is as far as you get, it will not help. For true improvement to take place you must ACT on this information immeadiately.
1. Order your credit report from
www.annualcreditreport.com. Every 12 months you are able to get a free credit report per the Fair Credit Reporting Act. It won't have your credit score but will have all of the information on your creditors and your payment information. Scour this report and look at what is on it. Correct any inaccurate information like birthdays, addresses, employment information, aliases, and social security numbers.
2. Review the negative credit information that is listed on the report. You must correct any errors as soon as possible by disputing them through the credit reporting agencies. These credit reporting agencies have 30 days to investigate and respond to your inquiry. If they cannot verify the negative item your disputing in that time frame they must remove it from your credit report. By removing these negative items you will see a dramatic increase.
3. If you have a lot of open balances, look at your total credit limit versus how much you owe. You want to make sure that your balance is less than 35% of the total credit limit available. If you have 5,000 in credit available to you don't have over 1750 as you balance due. Obviously being less than that is great also. There are many ways to do this by increasing credit limits, balance transfer portions of balances, and paying down accounts.
4. Avoid any inquiries into your credit report. If you have multiple credit pulls this can lower your score by up to 5 points per pull (general rule not applicable for every pull). Don't open up several credit cards at once because the newness of the accounts can lower your score as well as the inquiries.
5. Call your creditors and ask them to lower your interest rate. If you have been a customer a long time and have paid well they will do this. Threaten to move over to another card that has a 0% transfer rate. They want you to stay and will help you by lowering your current interest. How does this help to increase your score? Now with the lower payment you can overpay on the account and get rid of the balance. By reducing debt load and paying this off quicker you will bump up your score.
6. If you are in collections or have fallen behind call and talk to the creditor. If you can pay off the collection or late card, offer to pay it off if they delete your collection. They will also lower the payoff if you bargain with them enough. Many times you can also ask them to re-age your account to a good standing with a large payment. Not having the collection or late payment will help your score a lot.
7. Pay on time. I know it's basic but many people just don't do it. Time is on your side with credit repair as your negatives will not lower your score as much the older they get. If you pay on time for a while you can call and ask the creditor to delete old negative information. Some will do it because they want to keep you as their customer.
8. Don't close old non used zero balance accounts. One of the best things for a high credit score is older good payed accounts. Shows you have a long credit history and have paid on time. Where this can affect you is when you balance transfer your balance to get a zero APR and you close the other account because you transferred from it. Not only do you have an inquiry but you have taken a seasoned account and replaced with a new one. Make sure to keep those old accounts open for credit report purposes.
9. Set up automated payments if at all possible. Look, we all have good intentions but once and a while are busy lives get in the way. If you have an automatic payment set up then the hiccup will be covered. Sometimes you can bargain with the creditor and get a lower rate for setting up auto withdrawal.
Keep in mind this was supposed to be a thirteen minute guide. I can't go into the full explanations of everything nor give you all of the tips. These simple steps I have outlined are quick and easy and can easily be implemented to raise your score. If you follow these I think you will see a dramatic increase in 30 to 60 days and something can happen sooner. Keep in mind that with a little elbow grease you can have a substantial reward. On the other side of the coin, no action and this quick guide becomes useless and you just wasted 8 minutes learning about something that will have no affect on your life.
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David Forer is a financial veteran of 15 years. To tap into his knowledge of credit repair, debt settlement, and budgeting go to his blog
Credit Repair Services and receive a free 10 page report.
