Tips On Keeping Good Credit Scores
The first step when purchasing a house is to get pre-approved from a mortgage lender. One important factor in getting approved is your credit score, the higher the score the better your credit is. Lenders pull a report from three major credit bureaus to receive three maybe different scores (numbers). The reason the scores may be different depends on which bureau your creditors report to. The rating is established by a percentage of different factors:
Bill Paying History (35%)
Paying your bills on time is a good thing. If you have late payments, it could hurt your score quite a bit. The more recent late payments the more chances your score will go down. It is better to have one or two mistakes then a pattern of late payments. A series of 30- day late payments is worse then one 60 day late.
How Much You Owe (30%)
It is figured on what you owe versus how much available credit you have on your cards. The more credit cards you have maxed out the lower your score will be. However, owing nothing may not give you a good score in this area because there is no track record of how you handle credit. It is good to have a little bit owing on your cards.
How Long You Have Managed Credit (15%)
If you have too many credit cards and want to cut them up, it might be wise to keep some of the ones you have had for a long time, even though they may be at a higher interest rate. The reason is the credit companies can see past history on how you have managed your cards. You may want to use these cards once a year and then pay them off.
Mix Of Credit (10%)
It is good to have installment loans such as car lonas and also revolving debt which is credit cards to show how you manage different types of debt.
Pursuit Of New Credit (10%)
Anytime you request credit the creditor will pull a credit report which places an inquiry on your report. Too many new inquiries every month is not a good thing.
It is a good idea to annually check your credit by getting a copy of your credit report to make sure there is no incorrect reporting or fraudulent activity.
November 6th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Great article, I am going to link to it. lar
November 6th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
Can I buy 0 down with a 490 credit score
November 6th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
[...] Carol Miller added an interesting post on Tips On Keeping Good Credit Scores.Here’s a small excerpt:One important factor in getting approved is your credit score, the higher the score the better your credit is. Lenders pull a report from three major credit bureaus to receive three maybe different scores (numbers). … [...]
November 6th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
[...] Carol Miller added an interesting post on Tips On Keeping Good Credit Scores.Here’s a small excerpt:One important factor in getting approved is your credit score, the higher the score the better your credit is. Lenders pull a report from three major credit bureaus to receive three maybe different scores (numbers). … [...]
November 6th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
[...] Carol Miller created an interesting post today on Tips On Keeping Good Credit Scores.Here’s a short outline:One important factor in getting approved is your credit score, the higher the score the better your credit is. Lenders pull a report from three major credit bureaus to receive three maybe different scores (numbers). … [...]
November 6th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
[...] Read the rest of this great post here [...]
November 7th, 2007 at 11:44 am
[...] a quick snapshot of what affects your credit score, with information that might help you, click here. Tags: credit, [...]