Your credit score is an important tool that shows whether or not you’re creditworthy to potential lenders. It’s full of valuable information that reflects on your buying habits and your bill paying habits as seen on Credit Secret Review.
Credit scores can rapidly fluctuate if you’re not careful. You want to guard your credit and make sure that you’re paying your bills on time and that you’re not overextending your creditworthiness. To do this, you’ll want to spend far less than you earn and keep your ratio of debt to credit as low as possible.
Here are a few time-tested ways to improve your credit score and show your creditworthiness to potential lenders.
Pay Bills On Time
It’s vital to pay your bills on time. If you can’t pay your bills on time you need to find a way to earn more money or spend less money. Potential lenders look at whether or not you pay your credit cards, rent or mortgage, utilities, and other bills on time.
In addition to paying your bills on time, you’ll also find that you’re not getting late charges that can cost you anywhere from $5 more to $100 more each month.
Learn To Live Within A Budget
If you’re like many, you may need to adjust your budget on a monthly basis. If your income fluctuates from one month to the next, you’re likely going to have to do some adjusting each pay period.
You can learn to live like this and adjust it each month at the beginning of the month. This is also a great benefit as you can sometimes pay extra on a bill during the month if your income fluctuates. This can help you to get out of debt faster and it will help to raise your credit score.
Don’t Overextend Your Credit
If your credit score is currently high, you may find all sorts of credit offers in your mailbox. While this can make you feel great, it’s also a precarious slope to be on.
Accepting all of those offers can be dangerous in that you’ll have credit cards that have large amounts of credit available. It may be tempting to run these up and buy things that you’ve been waiting to buy. Don’t do it. You’ll wind up spending more and having to pay larger amounts each month.
Keep A Low Debt To Income Ratio
Your debt to income ratio is important. If you owe more than you’re bringing in each month you are in a dangerous position. You’ll have to lower this to raise your credit score.
You need to strive to keep your debt to income ratio as low as possible. The lower the better. It’s better to have more credit that you’re not using than to have your cards all maxed out.
Focus On Solutions
If you currently owe more than you’re making, you need some solutions to lowering this. Take in some extra work. Consider working overtime, taking a second job temporarily, working online parttime, or some other means to boost your income on a temporary basis.
You could also have a yard sale and use the money for paying down some of your bills. There are many ways to do this so get creative and put your mind to it and you’ll find a way to help boost your income.
Be Patient
You didn’t get into debt overnight, and unless you have a windfall, you’re not going to get out overnight. Set yourself down with pen and paper and determine what your bills are.
Once you’ve penned this information you can then determine a plan of attack. Start with little debts and get those paid off. You may wish to set a limit on anything that is under $50 be paid off first. This will really boost your score in a short amount of time.
Buy Used
If at all possible, buy items gently used to save money. Make it a rule that you won’t spend money unless you absolutely have to. Always remember to pay yourself first and be earning some interest on your hard earned money.
Often used items are just as good as their expensive counterparts so you’re not really losing out.
Following these 7 tips will help you to improve your credit score. In most cases, you can improve it on a monthly basis if you keep applying these tips.