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One thing we all learn about at some point in our lives is how important our credit scores are. If you are not familiar with how a credit score works or how it can affect you, it is time to get informed. First of all, your credit score is based on your finances. How much money do you earn, do you always pay your bills on time, and how long have you have a bank account and credit cards. These are all factors when it comes to your personal credit. As you may have heard, this will be an issue of concern if you ever attempt to purchase a large ticket item such as a car, furniture of a house. Maybe it is time you received a free credit report and credit score.

Everyone should be aware of where their credit stands. This way you know how easy it will or will not be to acquire a loan for a new vehicle or residential house. You see, when you go and apply for a mortgage loan in order to purchase a new beach condo or home in the suburbs, the lender will check out your credit history and current score. Hopefully your score is 700 or higher. This is considered good. The highest score you can have is 850, which is a perfect credit score. If you request a free credit report and credit score, and you have an 850, you truly should be stoked, and very prod of yourself. Not too many people have this.

There are helpful websites online that can assist you with receiving a free credit report and credit score at any time. However, one thing you need to realize is that you should not do this very often. Maybe once each year is ideal. Each time your credit is check, it is dinged slightly. Therefore it makes no sense to inquire about getting a free credit report and credit score each month. This would have a negative impact on your credit. A few websites to look into are FreeTripleCreditScore.com, FreeScore.com/Free-Credit-Scores, and ConsumerCompare.NextAdvisor.com. Take a moment to examine each of these sites in order to learn more.

Things that can really harm your credit are not paying your bills on time, failing to pay off your credit cards, having too many credit cards, and making a very low income. One type of credit card you should really avoid is the department store cards. These do nothing for your credit, but harm it. The more debt you have, the worse it is for your personal credit. If you have not done so yet this year, go ahead and request a free credit report and credit score. This way you will have an idea of where you stand in regards to credit for purchases. This is also a wonderful way to keep track of your credit, and make certain no one is messing with your identity.

Technorati Tags: credit score, free credit report

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There are such a lot of things in life that need relentless attention and work. One of those might be your private credit report. Of course, this tiny number can tell plenty about the way that you live, pay your debts, and spend your cash.

Did you know what your credit report is? Well, you don’t, do not worry about it. It isn’t the end of everything nonetheless, you might like to request your credit reports and scores for free this year. It is prudent to maintain a record of your score, and discover the standing of your report once every year. This way you know where you stand with regard to private credit and options for significant purchases.

Why are credit reports and scores critical? This is a standard question that many have. Well, fundamentally your credit history dictates your monetary credibility. Unless you have tons of money hidden away for any significant purchases which will arise, you want to keep a good credit report. Thing as seven hundred or higher is a good when talking about credit reports and scores. If you can get yours as high as eight hundred and fifty, you are wonderful, and will be proud. This is glorious credit. Nonetheless it’s also tricky to do. Irrespective of what you can think, your credit report isn’t just based primarily on your yearly salary. There’s lots more concerned. Your credit reports and scores are based primarily on your way of life and bill paying capabilities. For example, if you’re one of those people who pays all their bills on time, and doesn’t have lots of debt, you have a good credit report. This is the secret to keeping your number high. Be certain to pay all bills when they’re due, and don’t let cards get too out of hand. These things frequently spoil your credit score. Now, the difficulty with this is, when you have a bad score, nobody wants to increase you any credit lines. A nice example is a home loan. If you’re planning on getting a loan to get a home one day, you may need a great credit report. There are some beneficial websites you can read to give you a better notion of how credit reports and scores work.

These sites are AmericanExpress.com CreditSecure, Experian.com, and CreditReport.com. Check out these 3 internet sites to find out more about credit reports and scores. You can request a free yearly credit history every year. This is your right, and it’s also an excellent way to maintain a tally of your score. If anything looks off, you should report it right away. Sadly nowadays, there are numerous ID thieves out there that try and swipe identities, and so regularly ruin credit ratings.

Technorati Tags: credit report, credit score

I would like to make my credit better over the next year..It is not too bad I only have a few negatives against it..what is the best way to clear those up and is it worth it to pay off those bad debts (which are a old gas bill/phone bill) the other negatives is from a credit card that I paid off but was late…can I do anything about that?

The following 5 critical factors affect your credit score in a major way. By knowing these you can keep a check on them and make your credit score a healthy one.

1. Re-payment history

This factor carries the highest weight in your credit report. How steadfast are you in repaying your loans, makes your credit report shine. Experts claim that this factor alone accounts for 35% of points in your credit score. So, if you falter on repayment front it is sure to be reflected poorly on your credit score.

2. Outstanding debt

The next comes your debt burden. How much you owe is a factor that according to experts carries about 30% weight in your credit score. This is
30% is based upon outstanding debt. To get a better score it is advised that you keep your outstanding debt to a minimum.

3. Length of your established credit history

The time for which you have a credit history also matters. The longer your established credit history the more credit reporting agencies believe in you. This could be simply because of the fact that they have more data to analyze your financial position. Experts give it a 15% weight in determining your credit score.

4. The state of your financial accounts
How much money do you have in your bank account, your income levels, your house, car, your assets etc. comes the next. A healthy bank account reflects a healthy credit score. Experts find that credit reporting agencies give this factor 10% weight while determining your credit score. Read more about it at: http://www.credit-card-gallery.com/article/204,5_critical_factors_affecting_your_credit_score

I already disputed all of the items on my report (yes, ALL of them, thought I’d give it my best shot), and I want to know if there is any other way to get that stuff off of my report. I don’t want to do anything TOO illegal… in other words, I would be happy to find more loopholes like the dispute thing, if anyone has any suggestions…

disputing them, unless you win, won’t clean it up. your credit today is no better than it was yesterday. i’d suggest paying your bills, or at least making partial payments.

one credit card, a student loan, and a dew minor debts. I am divorced, and my crdit took a major hit. What is the highest score you can receive?

You have some awful answers here.

Credit scores are based on the following factors only;

1. Payment history 35%
2. Time in bureau 15%
3. Types of credit 10%
4. New credit 10%
5. Debt to credit ratio 30%

Since you have a mortgage a credit card and a car loan now as long as you pay everything on time every month your score should be fine.

FICO scores run from 300 to 850 anything that calculates to below 300 defaults to a 0.

To have the very best score and profile people need 3 credit card accounts (revolving) with balances below 30% of their limits and 2 cars, boats, homes, computers, furniture or personal accounts (installment) all with good long payment history’s.

I just got approved for for a pre secured credit card from BOA with a $500 limit. I want to know is it a good plan to use this card to pay off some small debts on my credit report. my thinking is that it will help to clear up my credit report and help build credit at the same time am i right about this or no?

No, it’s a bad idea to shift those delinquent debts onto a new credit card. It’s better that you get a copy of your credit report and start negotiating settlements of those derogatory items one at a time. Start with the newest and work back to the oldest.

If you have single entry items like medical or utility bills, ask for a delete for pay — you pay $x and they remove the derogatory item. This doesn’t work as well for regularly reported items like credit cards. The collection agency can only remove what they report. The original creditor’s charge off would remain.

Paying off old debt will not improve your score, unless you get the item removed. The damage is already done. However creditors look at your whole credit report,not just your score. Paid old debt looks better than unpaid.

If the derogatory item is over 3 years old, offer 25%; 2 or 3 years old, offer 50%; less than 2 years old, offer 75%. Lump sum gets the best deal. Payment plans have to be short term. Get any settlement agreement in writing and do not give collectors direct access to your bank account.

If you get that credit card, use it and pay it in full every month. This will give you a good credit history. You need at least 24 months of consistent, on time payment history to overcome the derogatory items on your file.

I have several negative accounts (a credit card, 2 cell phone accounts, one cable account, and a bank account) which all totals to an amount of about $1,500. I know those agencies that add your negative accounts to one large amount won’t help because you have to have at least $10,000 in debt.

How else can I fix this?

Like the one poster said, $1500 for all that isn’t bad at all. At one point, I had a $1500 cell phone bill alone (and I paid it off). I can give you a suggestion on how to fix this:

Organize the accounts in order from least to greatest. Starting with the least amount first. If you have the $ to pay it, what you can do is contact the collector and neogtiate to pay if they remove it from your report. Now they don’t have to do it, but they can. If you’re able to get them to agree to this, make sure that you GET IT IN WRITING before sending them a penny! Something on their company letterhead stating that they’ll remove account #________ from all 3 bureaus. If you’re not able to do this, then I would wait at least 6 months to dispute the account with the credit bureaus. Hopefully, they will have purged your information form their records and they won’t be able to verify the debt when you dispute it, and it comes off your record.

It will take some time to get this done, but I have confidence that this will work for you

I had accounts that had been reported as collections, but have recently payed them off to the collector in full. Will these fall of my report or is there a way to have it cleaned up and all of these removed?

If you are dealing with a collection account, you want a complete removal (a deletion) from your credit report, however, NOT a “Paid As Agreed”. You should always send a letter for them to sign stating that you agree to pay as long as you receive a deletion from your record.

Any notation on your credit report from a collection agency is considered negative, so even if the listing read, “this person has the best paying record we’ve ever seen”, it would hurt your score.

If you are dealing with an account which has been placed in collections, you now have two negative listings (in most cases) appearing on your credit report – the collection and the original creditor. If the original creditor refuses to deal with you and sends you to the collection agency, it’s very difficult to get the original creditor to remove the negative mark. But impossible? No.

You need to get the collection agency to agree to remove their listing entirely from your report and have the original creditor change the rating to "Paid As Agreed". At the very minimum, you are within your legal rights to demand the removal of the collection account from your report. For more info go to www.harrisandassociatescreditrepair1.com

how do i sign up for something where i can see my credit report online with all three companies and also have the option of 1) getting my credit score from each and also 2) being able to dispute things online to clean up any misinformation. thank you.

First of all, you can find many credit monitoring services, remember this though, the cheap ones are not always up to date. Just ‘google" credit monitoring services and you will find plenty to research.

The only problem is that the proper way to dispute with a CRA is not online. You will often get a computer generated response that simply states the entry is a valid one.

To have a disputed item removed properly it should be done in accordance with the guidelines listed under the FCRA. The FTC has information on the proper way to dispute items. Here is there link:

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre21.shtm

Hope this answers your question

mine is saying I have fair to poor credit because of lack of credit but when I go to get a credit card or loan I am turned down. Also is bad because of late credit card bills…so how am I to build it up if I cant get credit?

Ok, here’s the deal.

This is how your score is calculated:

1. Payment history- 35%
2. Total debt owed vs. available credit- 30%
3. Length of time establishing credit- 15%
4. Types of credit established-10%
5. Inquiries and New Accounts- 10%

This is what you should do:

1. Open a checking and savings account at a bank or credit union if you haven’t done that already. This established a banking relationship which will help you manage your money, but also develop rapport with the bank so that you may be exposed to their products especially if you’re an account holder.

2. Get a secured credit card. This is the easiest credit card to get. Some major banks (which I posted links to below) and credit unions offer them. The reason why it’s easy to get because you have to use your own money to place a deposit upfront which is used as collateral to establish a line of credit. This is not a bad thing, being that each time you apply for a regular card whether you’re approved or not, it drops your score up to 5 points. So with that in mind you want to get a card that you can easily get and work your way from there. This is a way to "custom build" a high limit card that you wouldn’t normally get from anyone else. Keep in mind that the deposit is normally usually tied to a savings account or certificate of deposit which means that your deposit money is gaining interest while you’re building credit. This is a good way to create a savings for yourself. Also, when you add to the deposit, you increase the credit line which can also help your credit score because it creates a cushion between your total debt and your available credit. A good way to use the card would be to treat it as if it only had a $50 limit on it at all times, make smalll puchases and pay them off every month, and add to the deposit as much as possible. As long as you can keep the balance low, if not 0, and pay on time, usually after a year or so, the card converts to a regular card or a better card’s offered, and most importantly you get the deposit back, with possible interest added to it. So when it’s all said and done, you will have rebuilt your credit by custom building a high limit credit card, and have a nice savings for yourself! Then if you want to, you can repeat the process again to custom build another high limit card.

3. Enroll in PRBC- Consumer hit it right on the head. PRBC is a new credit bureau that reports accounts that normally don’t report on your credit unless you fail to pay them and it goes to collections, like rent, utilities, cell phone, landline phone, etc. They take these payments and report it in what’s called a BPS( bill payment score) which gives a more accurate picutre of what your paying and more importantly WHEN your’re paying. They’ve teamed up with a bill pay service called CheckFree for $4.95 you can set up a checking account and it pays your bills every month and automatically reports it with PRBC

(I posted the link to that website as well)

4. Try to clean up your report. A lot of times there are accounts on all 3 agencies that may not be yours and your credit is suffering as a result. Look over your reports and dispute anything with the bureaus that’s not yours. As for the accounts that are yours, try to make arrangements with the collectors to get them paid off. Try to negotiate a "pay for delete" which is a payment in exchange for removing it from your credit report. The collectors may not do it at first, but it’s worth a shot. I posted links on negotiating debts too

I know that this is a lot of informtaion I threw at you, but it should work out for you

Good Luck!