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Wednesday, December 10, 2008

How To Improve Your Credit Score

By John Cooper

Improving your credit score can seem like a daunting task. The credit bureaus claim to factor in hundreds of things and you have no direct control over your score.

This is wrong. You can focus on a couple easy steps and develop a good credit score.

1. Disputing and removing bad credit items on your report. You can do this yourself or hire a service but it will help your score the most.

2. If an item is verified then work out a way to pay them in exchange have the item removed from your your credit report.

3. Pay your bills on time. It is alleged that missing one monthly payment can cause your score to drop by up to 50 points.

4. Open a new line of credit. Your score will receive the most benefit if you have a revolving line of credit. We suggest an unsecured credit card.

When you make your monthly payment you will be creating a positive payment history. This is a very large part of your credit score. If you have difficulties opening an unsecured credit card then get a secured card. Double check and make sure your credit card is reported to all three major bureaus.

In addition try to keep your monthly balance at 10% of your available credit. Doing this shows the bureaus that you do in fact use your credit and you use it responsibly.

5. Pay off large debt. Your score will get a bump if you have high available credit to debt. The bureaus want to make sure you are not overextended and by showing them you have available credit your score will get a bump.

These five factors are the only things you need to concern yourself with when trying to improve your credit score. There is one last factor however it is shadowed in controversy.

6. Piggy back credit, this is when you are added as an authorized user on an account with a high credit limit and low balance. The benefit you get is the account is not reported on your credit history.

This tactic has been widely abused by some credit repair services. The scoring model has changed to discount this method however it is disputed as to if that change has occurred or not.

In sum if you can take care of steps one through five then you will improve your score. With a high credit score your quality of life will also improve.

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