We have discussed how to build good credit, but I wanted to give you four quick tips that may help you on your road to keeping your good credit or repairing your credit.
1. Get a copy of your free credit report at www.annualcreditreport.com. Check all the information on your report for accuracy. Don’t be surprised if there are some accounts on there that you don’t recognize. If you have had some collections in the past, they may be listed under a collection agency name, so check and see who the original creditor was. This should be listed under the collection agency name. If there are discrepancies on your credit, report this to the credit bureaus as a dispute.
2. Pay your bills on time. This cannot be stressed enough. On time bill payment will help your credit rating soar!
3. Understand how your credit score is acquired. Please see my post, What’s Up With My Credit? to explain how your credit is scored. This will help you understand how your score is acquired and maybe a tip to help you in the future.
4. Work on repairing the damage on your credit. A previous post, Credit Repair, I briefly explain how to begin repairing your credit. You can do this on your own with out the help of a credit repair agency and the loss of money. The Federal Trade Commission has an article that will be of help as well, you can read it here, Building a Better Credit Report. Always beware of Credit Repair scams. They will promise to deliver, but many seldom do. Once again, the FTC has a great article on repairing your credit, Credit Repair – Self Help May Be Best.
I hope this information has been helpful. Please let me know if I can answer any questions for you.
Kim Shuford
[...] on Building Good Credit Posted in April 4th, 2008 by in Uncategorized Tips on Building Good Credit [...]
By: » Tips on Building Good Credit Credit Score on Credit Speak: Find Info, News and More on Credit Score on April 16, 2008
at 9:21 pm
Get your own mortgage credit report before the lender does.
There is a new service I recently signed up for. Instead of the free credit report that you see advertised on tv, which you can only get if you sign up for their monthly service, you actually pay a smaill one-time fee and get your own credit report. You get the exact same report the
mortgage lender gets when they order your report. It’s called an RMCR, residential mortgage credit report, or sometimes called a tri-merge because it pulls from all three credit agencies. You also get suggestions from this service on how to improve your score. I installed a link to it on my website in case anyone wants to access it.
By: Sean West on April 18, 2008
at 11:36 am
Thanks Sean for your advice. However, the report that you receive from http://www.annualcreditreport.com is a free report you can receive once a year and there is no catch or cost. I agree there are many places out there that offer “free” credit reports but their catch is you have to sign up with them. I do not recommend those to anyone. Thanks for your input and have a great day!
By: Kim Shuford on April 18, 2008
at 12:24 pm