Changing your Credit Rating

The first thing to do is get a copy of your credit report and make sure there aren’t any mistakes on it. If there are, take steps to get them corrected. Errors in reporting do occur, although the credit bureaus would like for you to think they are foolproof. Here are a few more tips to improving your credit rating.

· Don’t pay off the entire balance on your credit card. Keep about 75% of it paid and keep a 25% balance. This applies to multiple credit cards as well.

· Don’t get rid of your older accounts. Keep them open. The credit reporters look at the age of your accounts and the longer you have had a particular account in good standing, the better.

· Pay your bills on time. Experts say that this is probably the most important factor of all.

· Prevent inquiries to your credit report whenever possible. Your score drops with the number of inquiries.

The real key, however, is to only get credit when you need it and when you do get it, use it wisely. You can damage your credit rating with just a few late pays or collections and it may take up to a year of paying everything on time to build up a better rating.

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