Boost Your Own Credit Score
I fume when I see a credit bureau advertisement that you can “boost” your score for a small fee. Are they or are they not providing correct and objective credit reports? That said, there are ways that you can help your score go up and it does not involve paying a fee to the reporting bureau.
- Check your credit report. In the United States, you are entitled to one free credit report from each of the three bureaus each year. To find the right free credit report website, go to the governments site annualcreditreport.com or call 1-877-322-8228. You will need to verify your identity by providing your name, address, social security number and date of birth. If you are concerned, check the ftc.gov site for more information.
If you struggle to understand what you are seeing on your credit report, you can get help to read and correct all three credit bureau reports contact us at procreditrepair.com.
- Request that the credit bureau make any credit corrections needed. If you understand the report, and see inaccuracies, get in touch with companies misreporting on an account and then contact the bureau that has the credit error. Request a correction. The bureaus normally reach out to the company who contributed the erroneous information to confirm whether the information needs to be corrected, which is why you may want to talk to them first.
- Pay any past due collections and document those payments. This may mean getting a payoff or making a settlement offer to satisfy the debt. Make sure you get a letter of satisfaction. Even if the satisfaction letter states you paid less than the balance owed to satisfy the debt, the account is closed and not an open negatively reporting account.
- Allow at least a month before you apply for any credit, since the corrections may not show until the next reporting period. Having the corrections made and clearing open derogatory credit should help your credit score, but not until the next reporting period. Keep in mind, if you close out a positive account, it could actually drop your score, so if you are just looking to improve your score, close only the accounts still showing negatively each month.
Ways to keep Improve Your Future Credit Score:
- Pay at least the amount due each month by the due date. If the account reports your late payments, it will hurt your score. No score is fixed, so improved payments result in improved credit score over time.
- Keep your revolving credit account balances below 50% of the credit limit. When you use the majority of your available credit, it looks like you have problems controlling your spending. Keeping credit available for your use, shows how great you are at budgeting. Nice Job!
- Use alternative credit to show credit worthiness. If you make timely monthly payments on an account like your phone bill, you can request that the phone company report your account to the credit bureaus. This is helpful for people who have not yet built up a credit rating.
Don’t be discouraged when your credit score is not where you want it to be, with a little work and patience, you can repair your credit. If you want help from experts, check us out at https://procreditrepair.com.