If you are planning to make a major purchase anytime, whether it is a house, car or something else, it is important that your credit score be as high as possible. Though you can still qualify for many loans with less than perfect credit, you will likely have a higher interest rate, which can cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars over the life of a loan. Here are some tips that can help you improve your credit score if you aren’t in the top tier currently.

• Keep your credit card balances low in comparison to  your credit limit. Somewhere between 10 and 30 % of your credit limit is the optimal balance to strive for.
• Don’t close old accounts. One of the components of your credit score is based on the age of your accounts. If you close out some of your oldest accounts, your score can take a hit if all of your accounts look relatively new.
• Pay all of your bills on time. Late or missed payments have a major impact on your score. If you have an account you can’t make the minimum payment on, call and try to negotiate additional time to make the payment or a reduced payment amount that you can make. If you have a good payment history with your company, you may be able to do this to avoid having a payment show up as late.
• Review credit reports from all the major credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) annually and identify and correct any issues that you find. Mistakes are made on credit reports and most aren’t discovered until you are opening a new account at which point you may not have time to wait for it to be corrected. Make it a habit to do this in January each year so you are not surprised by anything you haven’t seen before.
• If you have one negative showing from an account holder that you have a good payment history with, ask for a reprieve and see if they will remove that from your credit report. If you have a history of paying on time, some companies are willing to do this.

All of these tips will help you keep your credit score in the very good to excellent range making it possible for you to borrow money at competitive rates when you need to. If you are looking to purchase a home, contact me at 817-690-0976 today and let’s discuss how I can help make you real estate dreams a reality.

Pam Snowden

Realty World Professionals

817-690-0976 (cell)

Pam@pamsnowden.com

www.PamSnowden.com

Photo by Johnson Johnson on Unsplash

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