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YOU CAN IMPROVE YOUR CREDIT SCORE

Harris-Courage & Grady, PLLC Jan. 16, 2017

Is Improving Your Credit Score One of Your New Year’s Resolutions?

We Can Help with That.

Rebuilding your credit has 3 components:

  1. Minimize the effect of older, negative information.

  2. Have negative information removed.

  3. Create new, positive credit.

It’s much easier to get new credit after you’ve dealt with the negative information and improved your score, so let’s tackle those topics first.

Minimize the Effect of Older, Negative Information

  1. Pay on time. A significant part of your credit score is based on your payment history. If your account is past due, that obviously is damaging to your credit score. Being 90-days past due is worse than being 30-days past due. Start making all your payments on time. The longer your account has been current, the better your credit score will be.

  2. Lower your balances. Another large component of your credit score is how much money you owe relative to how much credit you have available. Lowering your balances improves your credit score. This is the reason that many people find their credit scores improve when they file bankruptcy. Bankruptcy can reduce your amounts owed to unsecured creditors to $0.

Have Errors Removed from your Credit Report

  1. Get a current copy of your credit report from the 3 major credit reporting agencies. You can get this for free from www.annualcreditreport.com.

  2. Analyze your credit reports.If there are errors, you need to correct them.

  3. Write letters to the credit bureaus disputing incorrect information. Send them via registered or certified mail.

  4. Keep excellent records.If the credit reporting agencies don’t meet the deadlines required by law to respond to your disputes, the negative information must be removed.

Create New, Positive Credit

  1. Secured credit cards. A secured credit card works just like a regular credit card, only you make a deposit with the credit card company. If you ‘give’ them $1,000, then you can have a credit card with a $1,000 limit.You get your deposit back when you cancel the card.

  2. Secured loan. The bank is happy to loan money if you can provide enough collateral. For instance, if you had $2,000 in your savings account, the bank would be happy to loan you $1,500.

  3. Remember to get a variety of credit. Your credit score is better if you have more than one type of credit. You might get a bank loan and a secured credit card. That would be a simple, but great start.

You Can Rebuild Your Credit After Financial Disaster!

Our office offers a credit improvement program to help you stay on track and to give you detailed advice as you work to improve your credit score. For more information, call our office