Boost Your Credit Score

Boost your credit score by collecting all your bills and financial papers and giving them a spring cleaning, regardless of the time of year. Everyone wants a perfect credit score of 850 or to increase their credit rating to the best possible credit score. This is the main factor lending agencies consider when extending a loan or approving credit cards. Lenders want to know your payment history and credit scores are the way they get this information quickly and easily.

What makes up a person's credit score? How it becomes part of their credit history? A credit score is based on information gathered by the three U.S. credit bureaus: Equifax, Experion and Trans Union. Your credit score history began with the first purchase you ever made using credit. You didn't do anything for the credit information to get into your credit history. You simply signed a credit note or credit agreement promising to repay the credit lender the funds of the loan or credit card through payments of a specific minimum amount over a specific period of time. The credit lender extending the credit, whether is was for an automobile, furniture or something else, automatically entered your credit information into the credit bureau systems and your credit payments were recorded and monitored until you paid in full. When you paid a loan in full, that account was marked "closed". In the case of a credit card, the account would remain open as long as you are authorized to use that credit card account.

If you made no late credit payments, the credit entry became a good reference for your next purchase. All late or insufficient payments were noted and if there were many, a bad mark was placed on your credit history. As you began to use more credit, your credit history grew. The credit bureaus generated a credit score based on your credit repayments. Today, a credit score of 750 is considered a very good credit rating; a credit score over 750 is excellent while a credit scores below 600 is poor.

Boost your credit score by keeping your credit history up-to-date and making every credit card or other credit payment on time. Commit to avoid making any late credit payments. Pay off some of your credit debit completely. Reduce your overall credit debt to income ratio.

You should obtain a copy of your credit score report. Credit reports are now available, at no cost to you except postage and handling, once per year by requesting them from the credit bureaus. Check each credit entry, making certain that all credit entries actually belong on your credit record, that credit accounts you have paid off are marked 'closed' and clear up any errors or credit entries that haven't been recorded properly. You might even find credit history that has not been recorded at all. The credit bureaus will send a form to request any corrections; simply fill out this form and return it by mail. After a few months, obtain another credit report and verify correction to your credit records. Check to see if you have successfully increased your credit score. By increasing your credit score even a few points at a time, you will be able to gain more buying power through prudent use of credit.

This article has been provided courtesy of FindYourCard.com. The site that gives you the ability to search and compare credit card offers and apply online.

Credit Card Debt and How it Affects Your Credit Score

Many people tend to be in the dark on how credit card debt actually affects your credit score. Some are under the impression that it's 100 percent negative while others swear by it as the only way to build up their score. I can tell you that these types of revolving credit are a double-edged sword in that if maintained properly they can really help to build it, however letting your Visa or Mastercard get out of hand can really put a damper on your scoring.

The main things you want to avoid are the following:

1. Keep your available credit at 50% or more.

The more of your credited amount that you are using the more it will take away from your credit score. A good rule of thumb is to keep 50% or less on the card at any given time. The less obviously being the the better.

2. Never close a long standing credit card.

I know the first thing you may want to do after paying off a mountain of debt is to just cancel the account and be done with it. Think about this though before you do it. If it's a long standing line of credit and you decide to close it, that history stops right there. This can impact your credit score almost immediately and will alter it for time to come.

If you can follow these two tips, you will be well on your way to driving up your score and keeping it at an extremely favorable range that will look attractive to many lenders.