Living with a large amount of debt or a bad credit score can cause a lot of stress in your life.
In today's credit-driven society, a bad score can actually hold you back from getting ahead.
Not only can a low score stop you from buying that new home or car you've wanted, but it can also prevent you from getting the new job or education that you need.
If you happen to have a credit score below 600, you already know how difficult it is to get a loan or credit card with a reasonable interest rate...
if you are even accepted in the first place.
The reason for this is that lenders use your score to not only decide whether or not to give you credit, but also what interest rate they are going to charge you.
People with good credit scores get lower interest rates from lenders on all of their credit cards, car loans, and mortgages.
The Basics Before you can start raising your score, you need to know the basics.
You need to know what a credit score is, how it is calculated, and why it's so important to you in your everyday life.
Knowing this information will help you to better understand how your day-to-day financial decisions affect your credit score and the financial picture that it gives of you.
Lenders certainly know the type of information they can get about you just from looking at your score.
Therefore, it's very important that you also know what your score means to the various lenders.
Because of the way credit scores are calculated, some actions that you take to fix yours will have more of an effect than others.
In general, paying your bills on time and meeting your financial responsibilities will raise your score the most.
Owing a reasonable amount of money, and being able to repay it, shows lenders that you take your finances seriously and are a good credit risk.
Pay your bills on time One of the best ways to raise your credit score is simply to pay your bills on time.
This technique works very well because there is no better way of showing lenders that you can manage your debts than having a history of paying them when they come due.
Of course, if you have had problems making your payments on time in the past, your current score will reflect this.
Don't worry...
this can be fixed.
A few months of repaying your bills on time will raise your credit score again, and the effort will be well worth it when your credit rating rebounds!
In today's credit-driven society, a bad score can actually hold you back from getting ahead.
Not only can a low score stop you from buying that new home or car you've wanted, but it can also prevent you from getting the new job or education that you need.
If you happen to have a credit score below 600, you already know how difficult it is to get a loan or credit card with a reasonable interest rate...
if you are even accepted in the first place.
The reason for this is that lenders use your score to not only decide whether or not to give you credit, but also what interest rate they are going to charge you.
People with good credit scores get lower interest rates from lenders on all of their credit cards, car loans, and mortgages.
The Basics Before you can start raising your score, you need to know the basics.
You need to know what a credit score is, how it is calculated, and why it's so important to you in your everyday life.
Knowing this information will help you to better understand how your day-to-day financial decisions affect your credit score and the financial picture that it gives of you.
Lenders certainly know the type of information they can get about you just from looking at your score.
Therefore, it's very important that you also know what your score means to the various lenders.
Because of the way credit scores are calculated, some actions that you take to fix yours will have more of an effect than others.
In general, paying your bills on time and meeting your financial responsibilities will raise your score the most.
Owing a reasonable amount of money, and being able to repay it, shows lenders that you take your finances seriously and are a good credit risk.
Pay your bills on time One of the best ways to raise your credit score is simply to pay your bills on time.
This technique works very well because there is no better way of showing lenders that you can manage your debts than having a history of paying them when they come due.
Of course, if you have had problems making your payments on time in the past, your current score will reflect this.
Don't worry...
this can be fixed.
A few months of repaying your bills on time will raise your credit score again, and the effort will be well worth it when your credit rating rebounds!