What are some easy ways i can improve my credit score?

Question

Just curious..

Answer

Hello! I actually work as a financial advisor and this is a question I get asked more often than not. My advice is to always maintain payments, even if you can only afford the minimum make sure that you are paying AT LEAST that. If financially possibly you should never use more than 60% of the balance on a revolving credit facility (credit card, line of credit). People often don't realize how detrimental old tv bills, or cell phone charges can be. Something I see more often than not when it comes to credit being destroyed are people paying cell phone bills late, believe it or not. Another thing, collections- even though you may not believe they are justified can absolutely destroy you're an coal life, and can stay on the credit bureau LONG after you've paid them off. I cannot lend to anyone who has a collection.

Lastly, if your credit is absolutely terrible and you have multiple credit cards near their limits I always recommend going through a third party company to consolidate cards / pay off collections. Yes, the interest rate will be through the roof, (don't be scared off, and always think of the long term goal) however it will be one lower and easier payment to manage, will clear up your collection, and improve your credit score. Once you have done this and showed perfect repayment history, in as short of a time frame as 6 months you could transfer your consolidation loan to a bank at a lower rate of interest.

I hope this helps a little bit, feel free to ask follow up questions if you need help.

Answer

Pay anything you have in collections. Also pay on loans and credit cards.

Answer

At the beginning of 2015 my credit score was 458, due to multiple reasons I had defaulted on a student loan, some used my information for an electric bill and some others, when I got a good paying job the student loan company began to garnish my wages. I got in contact them rehabilitated my loans now they are all in good standing  and I got the lender to take all the derogatory remarks off my credit report. So that was catching up my loans I went from $10,000 in student loan debt to now it's just over $4,000 still alot bit better then it was. My credit raised to 545, better but still bad. So now I looked at all the bad remarks on my credit report and disputed the ones that either weren't my debt or logged in correctly, my credit score raised to 610, alot better but still not good. I then got a secured credit card and paid every cent off each month, this allowed me to open and unsecured card with a higher limit, I now only use the card with the higher limit because it also has cashback. With 15 months of on time payments with my CC and keeping up even ahead on my student loans I can proudly say I have a 725 credit score in less then 2 years. I still want to get better but I am working on it.

Answer

Pay everything on time. Take care of anything past due/sent to collections. Pay more than the minimum due on your cards/loans.

If you need to establish credit, look into prepaid credit cards (you have to put money down to secure the card, but it will help start your credit history).

Answer

Get a credit card and just buy a couple little things on it each month. Also my boyfriend bought a car and financed only 1,000 on it which really helped his credit.

What are some easy ways i can improve my credit score?

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