Your Credit Report Score and What You Can Do About It

Your Credit Report Score and What to Do About It
By Douglas Michaels

Paying on time

Late payments on regular monthly bills will quickly reduce your credit report score and should be avoided at all costs. Bank loans and credit card debt are probably the easiest to miss paying as they are not as life-threatening as forgetting to pay the electricity or gas bill. If you are internet savvy, one of the best ways of avoiding late payments is setting up automatic payments through your financial institution’s website. Credit unions are perhaps the most amenable to this form of bill payment as some banks may charge for the service.

Closing Accounts

Credit scoring companies put a lot of weight on the length of your credit history. Closing newer credit accounts may well improve your score by reducing the amount of credit you have available and the chance that you may go out on a shopping spree. But closing your oldest accounts reduces your credit report score because it removes you longest history of payments from consideration when your score is compiled.

If you have moved recently, or are planning a relocation, make sure your utility or cell phone provider has a forwarding address. I closed an account in December with my natural gas provider, only to be surprised by a residual bill the following March.

Credit card imbalances

Let’s says you have three credit cards with limits of $10,000, $5,000 and $4,000 each and you are carrying balances on all of them or are about to make a large purchase using one of the cards. You would assume it may be best to use the card with the lowest interest rate and this may be the one with the $4,000 limit. But your credit report score could take a hit while you are trying to minimize interest charges. That’s because your score can be adversely affected by having a high debt to credit ratio on one of your credit cards. If your big purchase cannot be avoid, use the card with the higher available total credit to lower the impact on your credit report score.

Paying down your debt

If you are running on fumes from month to month, as I have done at some point in my life, you know it will take serious discipline to chip away at your debt. One of the most obvious ways to reduce your monthly outlay of cash and thus provide more funds for your debt-reduction plan is to avoid recurring expenses like the plague. And the ugliest of recurring expenses can be that old staple, the car loan. I have avoided paying a car note since 1982 by buying a succession of modest used cars that I have rigorously maintained. You could save yourself one or two hundred dollars each month by switching to a used car and purchasing an extended warranty.

Goosing your credit report score

What if you are fresh out of college or just stepped off a plane and have no credit? If you have made it though college while avoiding the credit card trap to which many college kids succumb, one of the easiest ways to jump start your credit report score is by applying for a secured credit card. You can do this by depositing some cash in a restricted account.

Most banks will issue you a credit card with a limit set by the amount of cash you have deposited. If you use the card regularly and pay on time, they may then lift the restriction on your deposit and change your account to a non-secured designation. After you have developed a feel for paying your credit card on time, it may be a good idea to call your credit card issuer and ask them to raise the limit.

Avoid card collecting sprees

I have seen many instances of consumers carrying credit cards from several well known department stores and electronics and computer manufacturers and retailers. You should avoid a proliferation of credit cards with small limits like the proverbial plague. And be very careful what you sign up for, whether on the internet or at in-store promotion booths.

Paying off old debt

I am reluctant to advise you to avoid paying off old debt as I am a stickler for living up to my personal obligations. This may become a matter of personal choice for you but you should know that paying an old debt that has languished on your credit report for years, revives the account as a current collection activity, a certain means of lowering your credit report score. Better to boost your score, sign your loan, then pay off the old debt.

All this sounds simple enough but can be difficult to put into practice. Remember that there is no quick fix for boosting your credit report score. It will take discipline and patience and will create some annoyances in your life, but in the long run it can save you bucketsful of cash.

For more tips on credit matters visit my website at www.my-credit-report-score.com

For more tips on credit matters visit www.my-credit-report-score.com

Douglas Michaels is an editor, publisher and columnist. He started out publishing a free construction industry magazine geared to introducing builders to new, environmentally-conscious technologies in the 1980s. He works in the financial industry and now dedicates his time to helping others educate themselves on improving their credit scores.

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