Tip #16: Don’t assume that one thing will
boost your credit score a specific number of
points.
Some debtors are lead to believe that paying off a credit
card bill will boost their credit score by 50 points while
closing an unused credit account will result in 20 more points.
Credit scores are certainly not this clear-cut or
simple.
How much any one action will affect your credit score is
impossible to gauge. It will depend on several factors,
including your current credit score and the credit bureau
calculating your credit score.
In general, though, the higher your credit score, the more
small factors - such as one unpaid bill - can affect you.
However, when repairing your credit score, you should not be
equating specific credit repair tasks with numbers. The
idea is to do as many things as you can to get your credit
score as close to 800 as you are able. Even if you can
improve your credit score by 100 points or so, you will qualify
for better interest rates.
Tip #17: Don’t think that having no loans or
debts will improve your credit score.
Some people believe that owing no money, having no credit
cards, and in fact avoiding the whole world of credit will help
improve their credit score. The opposite is true -
lenders want to see that you can handle credit, and the only
way they can tell is if you have credit that you handle
responsibly. Having no credit at all can actually be
worse for your credit score than having a few credit accounts
that you pay off scrupulously. If you currently have no
credit accounts at all, opening a low balance credit card can
actually boost your credit score.
Tip #18: Never do anything illegal to help boost
your credit score.
It seems pretty obvious, but plenty of people try to lie
about their credit scores or even falsify their loan
applications because they are ashamed of a bad score. Not
only is this illegal, but it is also completely ineffective.
Your credit score is easy to check and not only will you not
fool lenders by lying but you may actually find yourself facing
legal action as a result of your dishonesty.
|