Fast Fixes for Your Credit

I found this great article called 7 Fast Fixes for Your Credit Score on a blog called http://www.youstyle.com/. Here are the basics, with a dab of my own flavor.

Know the score: If you don't know your own credit score, you really don't know what you can get credit for. This includes a car, a house, even a job. You can fix this by getting your free credit report - yes absolutely free.

The Fair Debt Collections Practices Act gives you the right to get your free credit reports at http://www.annualcreditreport.com/.

First, the article suggest that you "Pay down your credit cards. Paying off your installment loans (mortgage, auto, student, etc.) can help your score, but typically not as dramatically as paying down — or paying off — revolving accounts like credit cards." I agree with this point.

Second, Use your cards lightly. Enough said.

Third, the author warns you to "Check your limits. Your score might be artificially depressed if your lender is showing a lower limit than you’ve actually got. Most credit-card issuers will quickly update this information if you ask." This is good advice.

Fourth, Dust off an old card. The older your account the better. A long history with timely payments - even the minimum, will help you increase your spending limit's if your available balance to too low.

Fifth, "Get some goodwill. If you’ve been a good customer, a lender might agree to simply erase that one late payment from your credit history". I disagree on this point. The likelihood of you getting some goodwill is slim and it is a waste of time, effort and hope.

Six, Dispute old negatives. "Say that fight with your phone company over an unfair bill a few years ago resulted in a collections account. You can continue protesting that the charge was unjust, or you can try disputing the account with the credit bureaus as “not mine.” The older and smaller a collection account, the more likely the collection agency won’t bother to verify it when the credit bureau investigates your dispute." I agree with this point, but only so far. Be careful with trying to file to many disputes with a credit bureau. In fact, it's best to dispute only one account at a time with the credit bureaus. If you try to do dispute too many accounts at the same time, you could be accused of trying to get out of your financial obligations by filing a "Frivolous Complaint". If this happens you may be banned from filing any disputes with the Credit Bureaus. It is important to only dispute one account at a time.

Seven, wage war on negative and inaccurate information. The author states, and I agree that "your credit score is calculated based on the information in your credit report, so certain errors can really cost you."


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