Improve Your Credit Scores
What you do affects your credit score or FICO. Your ultimate goal should be to improve your credit scores. First of all, there is no perfect credit score. The average FICO consumer credit score today is right around 678. Credit scores are not affected by race, creed, education or religion. Credit scores are individual, meaning married couples do not share a score. But what we must remember is that you can improve your credit scores.. in all 3 bureaus.
What affects your credit score negatively? Ughhhh Bad Credit.
- Foreclosures
- Bankruptcy
- Tax Liens
- Late Payments
- Percent of Credit Use to Available Credit
- Too Many Requests for Credit
- Having No Credit
So, on a daily basis, what do you need to do to stabilize or improve your credit score? Woohoo Positive Credit.
- Make Payments on Time
- Keep Your Balance on Each Card at or Below 30% of Available Credit
- Make Use of Credit. Do Not Have A Zero Balance
- Keep Those Credit Cards (Credit Age)
It all sounds so simple but in life, we realize that payments can’t always be made on time. There is job loss, you might move and the bills might not catch up to you, and credit issuers may lower your credit limit and push you past the use of 30% of your credit on any one card. Look, at least 1/3rd of all credit reports have an error in them. Again, forget about the elusive perfect credit score. You should be asking… how do I increase my credit score? What’s a good credit score? Our goal is to get our FICO into the 720+ area. We might as well look at our credit reports and credit scores and right any wrongs in those credit reports.