Let’s talk credit. It’s so important. It can determine whether you get that home or not, and save you a lot of money on the rate you’re going to pay if your credit score is good. Of course, you want to make your payments on time, but how can you actually improve your credit score? What can you do?
Here’s a couple of little known secrets:
First, keep the balance you owe on any of those accounts below 30% of the credit line. If you have a credit card with $1000 limit on it, keep your balance to $300 or less.
Second, what if your balance is higher than that and you can’t bring it down? Well, go to that credit card issuer and ask them if they’re willing to give you a higher limit. By bringing the limit up, the amount you owe becomes a smaller percentage of your limit. That will help your score.
Third, don’t close off any credit lines that you have from the past. That’s good history that you’ve built up. You want to keep that good history. It’s like getting straight A’s in high school and not wanting to show the report card. Keeping good history will help your credit score.
Last, think about some of those collection accounts – if they’ve popped up. Just paying them off may not be the right thing to do. Just wait and see on those – because by bringing them up, you may ding your credit score by bringing that to the front of your credit history.
So those were a couple of quick tips for you, and I hope they help! If you need any more information, give me a call, I’ll try and help you improve your credit and get in a home.