Improve Your Credit Score! - A Few Tips on How
Your credit score matters. Lenders take your credit score into consideration when making decisions and the better your score is, the better your interest rate will be. But what if your credit score just isn't what you want it to be? There are actions you can take to help boost your score to where you want it to be.
Your Credit Report
Your credit score is based on the information from your credit report so you should start there. Order your report from each of the three different credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. By law, you are permitted one free report from each of the bureaus every year and you can order the reports by phone or online. First, check the identity information on your reports. Are there any names, social security numbers, or addressed listed that do not belong to you? If so, it is an indication that someone else's information is listed on your file. List any errors you find so that you can have the credit bureau fix them. You should also review all your credit accounts. Carefully look at all the details, including when the account was opened, the account number and type, the credit limit, and the payment history. Add any errors such as accounts or delinquencies that are not yours to your list of items for the credit bureau's attention. The next step is to check the inquiries on your report. The most important are the hard inquiries, or ones from lenders that happened when you applied for credit. If there are any older than two years or any that weren't authorized, add those to your list as well. Have your list of all discrepancies checked by the credit bureau by using the form they send along with your report. Credit bureaus are required by law to investigate the cause of any errors.