Finance: 5 Ways To Raise Credit Score

5 Ways To Raise Credit Score

Written by Gary Gresham

Continued from page 1
Lenders also like to see a lot of of room between repparttar

amount of debt on your credit cards and your total credit limits. So repparttar 111921

more debt you pay off, repparttar 111922

wider that gap and repparttar 111923

better your credit score. 4. Don’t Close Old Accounts In repparttar 111924

past people were told to close old accounts they weren’t using. But with today's current scoring methods that could actually hurt your credit score. Closing old or paid off credit accounts lowers repparttar 111925

total credit available to you and makes any balances you have appear larger in credit score calculations. Closing your oldest accounts can actually shorten repparttar 111926

length of your credit history and to a lender it makes you less credit worthy. If you are trying to minimize identity theft and it's worth repparttar 111927

peace of mind for you to close your old or paid off accounts, repparttar 111928

good news is it will only lower you score a minimal amount. But just by keeping those old accounts open you can raise credit score for you. 5. Stay Out Of Bankruptcy Bankruptcy is repparttar 111929

single worst thing that will destroy your credit score. Bankruptcy will lower your credit score by 200 points or more and is very difficult to come back from. Once your credit score falls below 620, any loan you get will be far more expensive. A bankruptcy on your credit record is reported for up to 10 years. The reality of a bankruptcy is it will limit you to high-interest lenders that will squeeze out high interest rate payments from you for years. It is better to get credit counseling to help you with your bills and avoid bankruptcy at all costs. By getting credit counseling instead of declaring bankruptcy you can raise credit score over a much shorter period of time. Copyright © 2005 Credit Repair Facts.com All Rights Reserved.

Gary Gresham is a mortgage loan officer and the webmaster for http://www.credit-repair-facts.com He offers you credit information, debt elimination programs and informative facts that give you the knowledge to correct your own credit and credit report. For more credit related articles go to: http://www.credit-repair-facts.com/articles_1.html

The Top 5 Secrets to Managing Your Credit Cards—So They Won’t Manage You

Written by Rob Sallay

Continued from page 1

Today, repparttar average American family, for example, owes approximately $8,000 on its credit cards—and repparttar 111920 credit card companies could not be more pleased. If 115 million families owed you money—on which you earn finance charges and late fees every month—you would be positively giddy, too.

Let’s say you have an outstanding balance of $2,000 on a single credit card. Your annual interest rate is 9%, and your credit card company requires you to make a minimum $30 payment each month. Assuming you do not miss any payments (which would cause your interest rate to rise, as well as add late fees as high as $40 per month), it would take you 204 months to pay off this balance if you make only repparttar 111921 minimum $30 payment each month—and by then, you will have paid an extra $1,028.43 in interest. This is how debt begins: A $2,000 charge winds up costing you $3,028.43.

4. Switch Cards If you are still paying an annual fee on your credit card, it’s time to make repparttar 111922 switch to a card that is not only free, but rewards you for using it.

Assuming you have good credit and can secure a new card, explore your options. Banks offer cards that award cash-back bonuses, airline miles, gasoline rebates and other perks each time you use them. If you can manage your credit appropriately, keep pace with payments and pay your bills on time, you may as well reap repparttar 111923 benefits of your spending habits.

5. Read Your Statements—Carefully Some consumers pay their credit card bills without carefully reviewing their statements. This is one of repparttar 111924 most serious mistakes you can make—especially in an age of identity theft, when someone can use your card to make purchases in your name.

Always keep your credit card receipts, and check them against repparttar 111925 bill when it arrives each month. Make sure every charge is accurate, and notify your credit card company immediately if there are any charges you did not make. The company can reverse repparttar 111926 charge if it is a simple error—or if someone has used your card without authorization. In repparttar 111927 latter case, ask repparttar 111928 company to cancel repparttar 111929 card, review any additional purchases made since that date and issue a new card with enhanced security features, such as a personal identification number (PIN), to be entered each time repparttar 111930 card is used.

In addition, check due dates on credit card bills. You may be used to paying your bill by repparttar 111931 20th of each month, but credit card companies have been shortening repparttar 111932 length of time consumers have to pay their balances. Very often, there is no notification of a policy change—or repparttar 111933 fine print is buried somewhere on your statement. Note repparttar 111934 payment due date each month, and try to pay repparttar 111935 full amount to avoid accruing interest or late fees.

------ Australian Debt Reduction offers all Australian consumers free debt consultations to assist them in getting back on top of their debt. They explain debt consolidation in simple terms and if you have over $4,000 in debt there are methods available to repparttar 111936 Australian public you may not have heard of to help limit repparttar 111937 amount of interest paid and rapidly reduce your debt. Visit Australian Debt Reduction at http://www.australian-debt-reduction.com.au or contact them directly on 1300 306 272

Rob Sallay

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