What factors impact your credit score the most?
When you think “credit repair”, you are probably thinking about way that you can raise your credit score so that you can qualify for a loan you want to apply for. In order to understand how to raise your credit score and repair your credit, it is important to understand the factors that go into calculating your credit score. The more you understand the factors that go into calculating your credit score, the easier it is to develop a sensible approach to credit repair. Each credit score model varies but we have a general idea of how FICO and other scoring models work.
Payment History – Around 35% of your total credit worthiness is measured by your payment history. This indicates that your past payment history seems to be the strongest indicator of your future ability and willingness to make timely payments to a creditor. The best credit repair companies typically spend most of their efforts helping you improve this part of the credit score equation. They can’t go back in time and help you pay your bills on time, but they can work with credit bureaus and creditors to remove misleading information and negative items that don’t accurately reflect your credit worthiness.
Credit Utilization – Credit utilization is measured as a percentage of total revolving debt divided by your total credit lines available. Credit score models weight your existing debt utilization at around 30% of your total score. If you are close to your total credit limit every month that might indicate to a creditor that you are living beyond your means and don’t manage your finances very well. A low credit utilization shows a creditor that you can easily take on more debt and manage it wisely. While some credit repair services may also offer debt consolidation or debt settlement services, credit repair typically happens after the damage has been done and there aren’t any outstanding payment issues.
Credit Length – How long you have had credit extended to you makes up about 15% of your credit score. Typically this is measured by the average length of time your various tradelines have been extended to you. That is why closing a credit card account or other tradeline can negatively affect your credit score. This factor in your credit score is a waiting game that may negatively affect the credit score of younger adults or those who use cash for most transactions.
New Credit – Ever wonder why applying for new credit can hurt your credit score? It is because applying for new credit and adding additional credit can affect up to 10% of your credit score weighting. The negative impact is more short-term than your payment history or credit utilization, but you might want to think twice before applying for a new credit card if you are thinking about refinancing soon.
Credit Mix – 10% of your credit score is also affect by what kind of mix of different credit you are using. Creditors are looking for someone with a balanced credit life. Having revolving credit lines and installment loans may indicate that you are more experienced using credit are have a lower risk of default for the creditor.
The way that your credit score is calculated may be vary depending on the source (FICO, TransRisk, VantageScore) and even these different models change their proprietary formulas from time to time but the above guidelines will continue to hold true as you try to improve your credit score.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Credit Innovations
Okay folks. Got to leave your credit card balances at 20% and below of your credit limit. Want your score to go up? Then you have to do it!!! You can't leave high balances.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Top Credit Repair Companies.
http://www.funnewjersey.com/upload_user/CREDIT_REPAIR_SERVICES/COMPLETE_LIST_OF_CREDIT_REPAIR_COMPANIES_ONLINE.HTM
I see us in that list. Not bad.
I see us in that list. Not bad.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
What You don't Have to Worry About Affecting Your Credit Score
There are a lot of factors that go into making up your credit score, from how often you pay your bills on time to the age of your various accounts. When you’re trying to clean up your credit report, knowing which areas to focus on can make the credit repair process much easier and go by quicker than you may have initially thought.
This article will focus on the other side of the coin; the stuff you DON’T have to worry about. Because while knowing what you do have to worry about taking care of is important, knowing what doesn’t matter as much to credit repair can free up any additional worries you may have. With that said, here are 5 things you don’t have to worry about ever affecting your credit score.
This article will focus on the other side of the coin; the stuff you DON’T have to worry about. Because while knowing what you do have to worry about taking care of is important, knowing what doesn’t matter as much to credit repair can free up any additional worries you may have. With that said, here are 5 things you don’t have to worry about ever affecting your credit score.
- Your income. You’ll typically find personal information like past addresses and employment info listed in your credit report, but one area of your finances that you don’t have to worry about showing up is your monthly income, both past and present. Creditors and lenders are more interested in what you do with money than how much of it you have.
- Your rent. While your credit card and car payments will routinely show up on your credit report, you won’t have to worry about your past rental history coming back to haunt you. Unless you consistently are late on your monthly rent payments and your landlords are trying to evict you, this is another area you don’t need worry about.
- Account overdrafts. If your bank account is ever in the red for whatever reason, you can rest a little easier knowing it won’t show up in your credit history. While overdrafts are generally something you want to avoid anyway (those fees are a real pain), your bank won’t typically take the time to beat you while you’re down and report the overdraft to the credit bureaus.
- Your utilities. Just like your past rental history, you won’t have to worry about utility bills showing up on your credit report, either. Anything from electric and cell phone bills to insurance accounts generally stays off your report unless they fall into collections.
- Any type of credit counseling or credit repair services. Some people are afraid to seek any type of credit counseling or credit repair service because they’re afraid it might show up on their credit reports. You can rest easy knowing that no one reports your use of a credit counseling service to the credit bureaus; you’re allowed a cheat sheet on this exam.
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