Can You Improve Your Credit Score? - Follow These Credit Tips to Increase Your Credit Rating

Having a strong credit score has never been more important than right now. The current economic situation has made the money available to borrow for things like mortgages or new credit cards very difficult if your credit score is less than perfect. Unfortunately many consumers are unaware of the fact that a weak credit rating on their credit report not only affects your ability to borrow money but it also effects many other aspects of your life.

A great example of what other areas your credit worthiness effects is your insurance rates. For example many homeowners' insurance companies are no longer even writing policies for people considered to be a high risk of defaulting.

Another great example of how a low rating or score can affect you is if you are applying for a job. Many employers, whether it is fair or not, are now running your credit reports and are denying employment for those who have bad credit.

Their rational is that if you cannot keep up with your responsibilities you are probably going to be the type of employee that does not value your job and you will not work to their standards.

How Can I Improve or Fix My Credit Score?

One positive to a credit score is that it can always be improved upon and increased. One of the first steps that you will need to do is to actually find out what is on your credit reports. There are three major credit bureaus that your lenders report all your credit habits to. The type of information they collect include the date you open the accounts, the credit limit of each account, what type of account it is and how you pay your account. This collected data is how your FICO score is generated.

How Do I Get A Copy of My Credit Report?

There is a great new tool that you can use to quickly get a copy of your credit report from all three agencies at the same time. The federal government has a program that allows you to once a year get a copy of what is on your report for no charge. You can quickly print out each report and then check it for any inaccuracies. If you find anything that does not look right you will need to notify each credit bureau in writing and have them look into the matter. If everything checks out they will remove the mistake from your report which will raise your overall score.

Avoid the Common Mistakes

Oftentimes when consumers are trying to improve their credit score they inadvertently make it lower. A good example of this is when you look at one of your reports and see a credit card that you no longer use so you close the account. Big mistake! If it is an account in good standing then the longer the account has been opened the higher it helps your score go. Another common mistake is having high balances on your credit lines. You should not have over 40% of your credit line outstanding at one time, anything over that will adversely affect your credit score.

When you are attempting to improve your credit score there are many avenues to take to do just that. We have only covered a few here. Having a strong credit rating will open many doors for you.