Tips To Improve Your Score

It is important to note that raising your score is a bit like losing weight:  It takes time.  Legitimate credit repair services like Hampton Credit will help you fix your past credit, but here are few tips on how keep your future credit in top shape.

Payment History Tips

• Pay your bills on time.  Delinquent payments and collections have a major negative impact on your score.
• If you have missed payments, get current and stay current.  Hampton Credit can help you remove old late payments, so paying your bills on time will keep your score from dropping again.
• Simply paying off a collection account will not remove it from your credit report.  Collections normally stay on your report for seven years, so if you plan on paying off a collection ask us how Hampton Credit can help get it removed now.
• If you are having trouble making ends meet, contact your creditors or see a financial advisor.  This won’t improve your score immediately, but if you can begin to manage your credit and pay on time, your score will get better over time.

Amounts Owed Tips

• Keep balances low on credit cards and other “revolving credit”.  High outstanding debt can affect a score.
• Pay off revolving debt.  Reduce the balance on your revolving credit to less than 30% of the high credit limit.
• Don’t close unused credit cards.  Reducing the amount of credit available to you will actually hurt your score.

Length Of Credit History Tips

• Don’t open a lot of new accounts too rapidly.  New accounts will lower your average account age, which will have a larger effect on your score if you don’t have a lot of other credit information.  Also, a rapid increase in available credit can look risky if you are a new credit user.

New Credit Tips

• Do your rate shopping for a given loan within a focused period of time.  Bureaus distinguish between a search for a single loan and a search for many new types of credit, in part by the length of over which inquiries occur.
• Re-establish your credit history.  Opening new accounts responsibly and paying them off on time will raise your score over the long term.

Types of Credit Used Tips

• Apply for and open new credit accounts only as needed.  Don’t open accounts just to have a better credit mix, it probably won’t raise your score.
• Have credit cards – but manage them responsibly.  Maintaining 3-4 credit cards and installment loans with current payments will raise your score over the long run.  Someone with no available credit, for example, tends to be a higher risk because there is no evidence of how they repay their debt.
• Note that closing an account doesn’t make it go away.  A closed account will still show up on your credit report for seven years from the date of last activity.

Debt Consolidation Tips

• Combine your balances.  By consolidating your accounts into a fixed term loan, you eliminate your balances on revolving credit. For more debt consolidation tips visit Debt Consolidation Care where you can get free debt solutions from professional counselors.