Unique Factors That Impact Your Good Credit Score

Let's say that you have a good credit score. Let's even go a bit further and say that you have an excellent credit score, the kind that makes people envious of you. You have an outstanding job with very respectable income levels, you pay all your bills on time, and you are very conscious of keeping your credit score as sterling as possible at all times.

You have worked very hard at this all your life, since you understand that a credit score is used these days in far more places than just when applying for a loan or a mortgage. You know that one's credit score is examined by most car insurance companies when they are figuring out what to charge you for premiums, using their alleged statistical evidence that historically people with low credit scores file more insurance claims. You make payments on your credit cards as soon as the bills comes in, long before the actual due date, and for maximizing your credit score, you keep any outstanding balances at the optimal figure of being under 25% of your credit limit.

So with all this understanding, where in the world does it make sense that you would still have a low credit score?

It can and does happen. Although you have already considered the major factors that impact your credit score, you have certainly not covered each and every one of them. There are unique circumstances that can occur which can impact your credit score in a negative way, things that you didn't think would make a hill of beans worth of difference, but which do indeed make a difference, and can render all the work you have done to create a great credit score seem very insignificant. Let's look at some of these.

Say you own some properties and you have some contractors come out and do some work on them. Being the perfectionist that you are, you are unhappy with the quality of the work they have done and refuse to pay them until they fix the quality of the work and complete the job. The contractors file judgments against you, which of course eventually show up as unresolved on your credit report. This type of thing will impact your credit score negatively, even if everything else is perfect.

In another situation, say you got a divorce and as part of the divorce settlement, you give your spouse complete control over one of the joint credit cards you had when you were married. Now your spouse goes to buy a new car but their credit is not quite as high as it needs to be, because you got behind in payments on that credit card. Even though the divorce papers stipulate who is responsible for the debt on a credit card, that obligation does not supersede the identity of the responsible person in the eyes of the credit card institution. In this situation, you should always cancel any and all joint accounts that you may have had with your spouse and re-open them in just your name.

Keeping a credit score in the good to excellent category is something to strive for, but you need to consider all aspects of what impacts the credit score calculations. Even if many areas are the definition of perfection, being lax in other areas is not going to provide the credit score that you deserve to have.

For more insights and additional information about factors that can impact your Good Credit Score as well as finding resources to help you and allowing you to get free copies of your credit reports from the major credit reporting bureaus, please visit our web site at http://www.credit-help-center.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jon_Arnold

Solutions to Fix My Credit Rating

A lot of people are unaware of the fact that they can fix their credit rating themselves and the truth of matter is that no one shares the information openly. The reason is that there are to many people making money from the situation but I will show you how you can get your credit on track by doing it yourself.

The key to getting your credit rating on track is understanding the different negatives on your credit report and how to approach each one. You may have collection accounts on your report, which simply means that the original creditor sold the account to a third party, this company now has the right to try and collect payment from you.

These third party collectors purchase the debt for a fraction of what you owe and try and collect as much as of the original amount as possible. By law, collection accounts can stay on your report for only seven years after which time they need to come off.

If you have collection accounts on your report and they have not reached the seven year mark, then you can try negotiating with the collection company a lesser amount in exchange for them deleting it from your report.

This is a great way to clean up collection accounts on your report. Another way to start improving your credit rating is to begin to rebuild new credit. The formula used to calculate good credit includes new accounts that are in good standing. You need a couple of these accounts on your report to show that you are a good credit risk.

The best way to do this even if you have bad credit is to start with a secure credit card as well as cards that are designed to help you rebuild your credit. There are a number of these cards out there and I can show you how to get approved for them.

To learn how to raise your credit score 207 points in 29 days and get approved for that car, home or credit card loan you need, click here to get started today.

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Credit Ratings - How Important Are They?

Credit is one of the most important tools you'll ever have as you go through life. Credit enables you to purchase a home, buy a car, rent an apartment, get a credit card, and even get your phone service set up. Every time you apply for a loan or credit, your credit worthiness is checked.

Credit bureaus give you a credit rating based on your past credit history and this helps a bank make a decision on whether to loan you money, and if so, at what interest rate and for how long. As you can see, credit ratings are extremely important, and frankly, without a good one, you're not going to be able to get the things you want.

What is a credit rating? It's a score that tells statistically what the likelihood of you paying back borrowed money is. The higher the score, the better chance you will pay the money back. If your score is low, you're considered a bad risk. Your credit rating is issued by a credit bureau (usually more than one).

Each bureau has it's own rating system, but they all use the same basic information to develop your credit rating. This information includes your credit payment history, your current amount of debt, how long you've had credit and the types of credit you have. The different credit bureaus may come up with different scores, but as far as being favorable or not favorable, they should all end up in the same ballpark.

As mentioned earlier, your credit rating is used to determine whether a bank or lender will give you a loan. The better your score, the better your chance of getting a loan (or a credit card). Another reason your credit rating is so important is that even if you are able to secure a loan, your credit rating will be a determining factor in what type of interest rate the money is loaned to you at. This can make a dramatic difference in your monthly payment.

In the past, even people with pretty bad credit could get a loan. But because their credit rating was poor, the lender would increase the interest rate on the loan to offset the risk of loaning the money in the first place.

Recently, with the high rate of home foreclosures in the U.S. and the resulting financial issues the economy and banks are facing, people with poor credit stand a much slimmer chance to get a loan even with a high interest rate. The risk is too great. That's why it's important to have a good credit rating.

If you have a poor, or even middling credit score, don't despair. You can work to improve your credit rating so that you will be able to secure credit in the future. Just keep in mind that now is the time to act to begin fixing your credit, by making sure your credit report is accurate and you are using wise money management methods to strengthen your finances.

The sooner you start, the sooner your credit rating will being to move higher, thus making you a lower risk for borrowing money and enabling you to get credit for the things you need when you need them. Just remember - it's all about the credit rating. Work to improve that, and good things will follow.

If you need help improving your credit rating now, visit http://www.debtcredittips.com and get the relief you need today!

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Credit Cards & Late Payments - New Rules

The financial crisis and bank failures have resulted in lenders implementing new rules that many consumers won't be too pleased with. Here is a bit about how things have already changed - and you can expect more where that came from.

More credit collectors will be after you.

While the unemployment rate is expected to rise overall, that won't be true for credit collectors. Lenders like Citigroup are hiring in droves to keep consumers on their toes. They don't want you getting too far behind in payments, so they want a workforce to keep that from happening.

Late payments will be unacceptable.

For years, you could squeak by missing a payment here and there and just catch up the following month. No more! Lenders like Bank of America are no going to be in touch with you the minute you're late - to spur you into repaying your debt.

Lenders will wheel and deal with you more.

Not all of the news is grim. Some banks like Citibank have done something that will please credit consumers. They will match payments you make that are above the minimum amount due up to $550.

But you have to agree to pay off a sizable amount of your balance over the following months. The catch? They don't want you using your card during this payoff period and they will likely lower your credit limit, too.

American Express is dealing, too - with breaks on interest rates, payments, or fees you've incurred.

They'll be watching your spending patterns.

If it looks like you're out on a spending frenzy and still only making minimum payments, you could have your credit limit lowered. If you've been paying great all along and suddenly are only paying the minimum amount due, it will raise a red flag. They're monitoring all of this.

Having good credit is more important now than ever before. If you're in the Good ranking, that's not going to be "good" enough! Visit http://www.debtcredittips.com to see how you can clean your credit score high enough for the new economic rules.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tiffany_Dow

Credit Card Debt Now Something to Avoid

We have entered a new age in the world of loans and credit. Times were such that one could count on getting a new credit card application almost daily - sometimes two. But it seems the ease of applying for a new credit card may be the Achilles heel to a prospective home buyer. Why?

It seems that one of the many things mortgage lenders look at when deciding if someone is a good credit risk is to look at how many credit card accounts they have open. The more you have, the less likely that part of your credit score will be good. It seems that folks who use credit cards a lot also have the lack of discipline necessary to pay off a home loan.

Credit cards were never intended for what we use them for today. They were only issued to folks who already had the money on deposit elsewhere carried a credit card to purchase items, then could pay it off by the end of the month with money they already had.

This eventually evolved into offering unsecured credit to those who didn't have the means to pay off the "mini loan" each month, allowing just about anyone to buy something more expensive than they could afford, and make small monthly payments.

Frankly, this was an invention of savvy bankers looking for a way to make more money on interest. Unfortunately, it is now to their detriment to have made these bad loans as more and more people cannot afford the monthly payments and are defaulting on their credit cards.

The wise course, it seems, is to not even apply for that second or third credit card. The reason is simple. Should you ever desire to apply for more important kinds of loans like a home loan or a home improvement loan, you want to keep your record squeaky clean including a clean credit history; no bankruptcies, etc.

An example of a good credit risk might be someone who has a car loan, a gas card and maybe a one credit card. So a wise consumer would hold off on opening a new line of credit with a bank. It is just too easy to run up to your spending limit. And if you have two or more credit cards you can get in over your head, financially speaking, and the only choice is to file for bankruptcy.

But even filing for bankruptcy has become more difficult. The new bankruptcy laws instituted in 2005 make it harder for just anyone to write off their debts with a Chapter 7 bankruptcy and "start from scratch."

You have to fit certain qualifications to even be considered for a Chapter 7 nowadays, otherwise you may have to consider the tougher Chapter 13 bankruptcy which still requires you to pay off your debts but in a more structured way.

So, if you do get yourself in trouble with credit card debt, you don't have any easy options to get out of owing on those debts. To top that off, you can potentially ruin your chances of getting a loan to buy a new home or to improve the home you own, if you have a record of not paying your bills on time.

In the final analysis, prospective home buyers should attempt to establish good credit by financing a car and keep up the payments - http://www.debtcredittips.com can show you how. Stay with a job rather than skipping around from job to job and very importantly, not taking on more credit than you can handle paying off each month.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tiffany_Dow