First, in order to improve your credit score, you will need to know what it is, and why. credit monitoring services like Identity Guard established and FreeScoresAndMore.com provide you instantly with all three of your credit scores - Experian, Equifax and TransUnion - for subscribers. Also, good news - these first two services have free trials of 30 days
.Once you know what credit score you work with, you will need to go on your credit reports , which you can see with the same credit report monitoring service. Here you can see your credit history, including credit accounts that are currently open, closed credit lines, credit applications, late payments and collectibles. Although you might be surprised by what you find, it will help you understand why your credit score is lower or higher than you expected.
Correction and any errors in your credit report. According to the FTC, almost 52 million Americans had errors in their credit reports in 2012. These errors can be simple office errors or worse, identity fraud. Whatever the cause of the error, it could be to reduce your credit score and then keep you lower interest rates or credit acceptance altogether. To fix, you should contact the particular office where every mistake is found. This is relatively simple and can be done by filling out an online form on the particular credit bureau's website.
To stay on top of your credit score, you will need to continue monitoring. In addition to providing you your three bureau reports and credit scores, credit monitoring services report monitor your credit reports daily, alerting you immediately of any changes that occur in your credit reports. This will help you instantly find the credit report errors, detect identity theft and help you stay on top of your credit by asking about what exactly is happening with your credit history. As mentioned above, we recommend Identity Guard, which updates your credit reports and scores every three months and FreeScoresAndMore.com, which updates your reports and credit scores every month. Both services monitor your credit daily, and they both come with a free subscription to an Internet security software to ensure that your identity is protected even in your computer.
For a higher credit score, you'll need to reduce your credit utilization. Your credit utilization ratio looks like this:
You can check this by looking at your credit report and your credit account information
.A higher ratio of the use of credit affects your credit score negatively because it shows you use more than your credit limit. In other words, it is good to have a large amount of credit available, but bad to be using much of it. To reduce your CUR, avoid using your credit accounts to their limit and do not close old cards you do not use because more available credit, the higher your rate will be. If the option is available to you, you can lower your credit utilization rate by opening a new card, increase the amount of available balance you have.
The responsible use of credit will raise your credit score. If your credit score is too low to open a new credit card, try signing up for a secured credit card that actually makes account to the credit bureaus, like the Capital One Secured Mastercard. Using the card to increase your credit score is simple - just deposit a certain amount of money, and it will be your available credit for expenses. Repay each month as you would with an unsecured credit card. The good news is that if you maintain a positive payment history on the card, often the company may qualify for an unsecured credit card.
Now that you know what it takes, start your journey to excellent credit score by signing up for a free trial with one of the top credit report monitoring services. Read detailed reviews of all the services and compare them side by side here.