Everyone needs credit – whether you think so or not.  These days you can’t do much without a credit card of some kind.  It is nearly impossible to rent a car, book airfare or a hotel room, without a credit card of some kind.  That is why it’s important to stay on top of your credit rating and do what you can to improve it.  The reason most people do not is the rules that govern that little number are never actually revealed – most people only learn the hard way when they do things to push that number down.  It would be nice if they actually taught you about how credit really works in school, but it just doesn’t work that way.

The first thing everyone should be doing, at least every few months, is order a copy of your credit report.  Order it directly from one of the 3 main credit bureaus – do not order it from a third party unless you know and trust that company.  There are tons of scams out there, so you have to be careful.  Once your data is leaked or stolen it’s a real pain in the you know what to undo any damage that might be done.  And on top of this, the worries can go on forever, because the data on the internet lives on and is resold to other criminals.  Once you have your copy, look at every item on it and make sure it is actually accurate.  Meaning all open accounts you recognize and know, the reported balances are correct (mistakes do happen), and there is not stuff on there that should not be.  Usually factual mistakes are easier to clean up (misspellings, wrong balances, closed accounts that are listed open etc).  If you discover any of these, you will need to write a letter outlining the issues and mail it in.  This is stuff you can easily do yourself, and repair your credit problems that are due to clerical issues.

A second thing you can do, is to put ALL of your recurring payments (mortgage, credit card, car payment, HOA fees, insurance …) on auto pay.  Most banks now have online banking free of charge.  Most credit cards allow you to setup auto pay for free.  This will 100% insure that you never have a late payment on these.  This is the easiest thing to have happened to your credit report, often just a mistake in forgetting to mail it by the due date (or sometimes the due date shifts from month to month, credit card companies LOVE to do this).  Additional tip – look on your credit card statement.  There should be a billing cycle from date A to date B.  This billing cycle is usually uniform, its the due date that fluctuates.  You want to try to have your auto pay submit the amount due BEFORE THE END OF THE BILLING CYCLE.  This date is also when interest is computed on outstanding balances for the month, and it’s the dollar amount that is reported to the credit bureaus.  This is a good way to get your credit score higher.

A third thing to do, is on all credit cards, always pay more than the minimum balance due.  If the payment is 68.00, send in 75.00 or 80.00.  Obviously, it’s in your best interest to just pay off the whole thing as soon as possible.  But – you will get a better score if you don’t pay off your cards in full every month.  Take 3 months to do it – the minor interest you pay is worth it to show you can carry a balance, pay on time AND then pay off the card.  Do this several times and you will start seeing nice increases in your limits.  This seems counter-intuitive, if you charge 1k then pay off 1k you would think that would be idea.  But in the crazy world of credit, your card always shows a 0 balance so it’s like you are not really using the card.  You are actually penalized for being a responsible person.  No worries just vary the cards you use, keep a balance for a few months then pay in full and you are home free.  You will boost your credit score nicely by doing this method.

A fourth thing you can do, once you have good credit (720++) is to apply for an unsecured line of credit.  This is not a credit card, its a line of credit that you use checks to access.  You don’t want to use this, you just want it open.  Almost always its free to keep open (no fees).  The reason you want this is almost always these are computed with SIMPLE INTEREST.  Credit cards are always compound interest.  If you don’t know the difference between simple and compound – its rather easy.  Compound interest charges interest on interest.  Meaning if you carry a balance of $10,000.00 and the annual rate is 12% per year, which means its split into 0.12/360 percent interest PER DAY.  So compound interest will accrue today, then this is added to the balance and tomorrow, the interest is computed on this new balance.  Over time it adds up to a huge difference.  Simple interest is just computed once a month on the balance outstanding.  I do not know if there are any simple interest credit cards, but I have not heard of any.  The reason you want the credit line open, is if you get a balance on a higher rate, compounding card, you can transfer the balance to the credit line and pay significantly less interest.  The credit card balance goes to 0, and you pay off the credit line per month.  You just have to be careful with this method not to fall into the trap of paying off the credit card, then while still paying off the balance transferred to the credit line, you start running up a balance on the card again.  This requires discipline, but is a decent method to save money.

A fifth thing you can do is to make sure no card goes above 50% of the outstanding credit limit.  This is something else they never tell you.  They give you a credit line of $10,000.00 but if you use more than $5000.00 of it, your credit score goes down.  It does not matter if you pay more than the minimum, pay on time, never miss a payment etc – your credit score is dinged.  The more cards you have in this situation, the worse off your score is.  The terrible thing that has been happening lately – someone has a $25000.00 limit on a card – they have charged $7000.00 they are paying off each month, well below the 50% threshold.  The card issuer decides to arbitrarily cut everyone’s limit to half of what it was before.  Now you owe 7k on a card that has a 12k limit AND your credit score gets dinged.  This happens regardless of anything you did.  It has nothing to do with you paying it or not, its an accounting measure.  The only remedy here is to pay off the card to get it lower than the threshold, or transfer some of the balance off the card.

Following these tips, you can easily build up your credit score and lower the interest rate you pay on everything from a home purchase to a new car.  It is not really that hard, but you have to stay on top of it like anything else.  No one will do this stuff for you – surely not the credit companies that make billions of dollars per year off of charging (and overcharging) people with high interest rates.  It is up to you to take charge.

Why do I need to boost my credit score?

There are tons of answers to this question but the following two reasons alone will help you realize that a poor credit score will literally and figuratively lead you to nowhere:

1. With a low credit rating, you will not be able to buy a car, purchase or rent a home, get insurance or take out a loan of any kind because lenders are getting more conservative and more strict with their terms and conditions every day. They only lend to those who hold a concrete proof that they are capable of making payments. The ultimate evidence they consider is your credit score.

2. Employers are also more careful in hiring new workers. They now screen each job applicant’s credit report and may base their decision to employ on this factor at their discretion.

By now, you are certainly convinced that a good credit score is one of the things you should possess in order to see yourself living a brighter future.

I have a poor credit score. Will I be in deep financial trouble for life?

The answer is a big NO. No, you do not have to bear the cross of poor credit for the rest of your life. In fact, there are guaranteed ways to improve and most importantly, boost your credit score.

Experian, Equifax and Trans Union are three major credit bureaus that report your credit information to lenders when necessary. The decision whether to grant you a loan or not largely depends on the credit bureau report.

A credit score ranges anywhere between 300 and 850. A score below 620 is considered poor while a score of 620 to 680 is fair and 680 to 720 is good. An excellent credit score is 720 or greater and this is what you should strive to achieve.

How can I improve and boost my credit score?

A Credit Advisor can guide you every step of the way. Improving and boosting your credit score is highly achievable once you find a reputable and legitimate financial firm.

Yes, you got that right! 90 days is all it takes to restore your credit.

Removing Credit Blemishes

ExpertCredit Advisorshave the skills and experience to remove inaccurate, incomplete, unverifiable and/or out-of-date items on your credit report. These so-called blemishes, once eliminated, will definitely improve your credit file but this alone may not always boost your credit score.

What is fastest way to boost my credit score?

Aged Credit Lines

Aligning aged credit lines to with your credit file is the surefire way to boost your credit score by as much as 80 points for each aged credit line.A Graceful FinancialCredit Advisorcan help attach up to 20 years of positive payment history within 90 days.

With aged credit lines on your credit report, you will boost your credit score dramatically because they hit on all 5 determinants that dictate the fate of your score that yield guaranteed positive results.

The five determinants that make up 100% of your credit score and how aged credit lines complement each one of them are:

1. Payment History – 35%

Aged credit lines result in a positive payment history.

2. Amount Owe on Credit – 30%

Aged credit lines show a low debt to credit ratio on your credit report.

3. Aged Payment History – 15%

Aged credit lines give you long years of positive payment history.

4. New Credit – 10%

Aged credit lines benefit new credit approvals.

5. Credit Mix – 10%

Aged credit lines show your capability to manage a mix of credit.

What else do I need to know about Aged Credit Lines?

1. Asking yourCredit Advisorto attach aged credit lines to your credit file is definitely legal.

2. You don’t have access to your aged credit lines. Their sole purpose is to give you the benefit of a positive payment history.

3. All aged credit lines are are guaranteed to report backpositive payment historyto the major credit bureaus.

For more great credit tips and news tune in to The Graceful Credit Show live every Sunday at 3:00pm EST on WCHB News Talk AM 1200.

GFS representatives are experts in Personal Credit Restoration, Business Credit Building,and Credit & Debt Counseling.GFS is committed to helping people reach their financial goals and dreams through trusted methods that guarantee results.

In order for GFS to get a jump start in helping you reach your goals visitwww.GracefulFinancial.com, completeQuick Quote,and an experienced Credit Advisor will contact you during your scheduled consultation to better assist you.

Graceful Financial Solutions, Because He Has Been So Graceful To Us.

Improving your credit score is very important and simple to do. Some people feel like giving up on situations like this not knowing the easy steps and procedures it takes to get on the right track to boost their credit score. You can get on the right track by simply taking these 8 tips to improve your credit score.

Tip #1 Understand where credit scores come from.

If you are going to improve your credit score, then logic has it that you must understand what your credit score is and how it works. Without this information, you won’t be able to very effectively improve your score because you won’t understand how the things you do in daily life affect your score.

If you don’t understand how your credit score works, you will also be at the mercy of any company that tries to tell you how you can improve your score – on their terms and at their price.

In general, your credit score is a number that lets lenders know how much of a credit risk you are. The credit score is a number, usually between 300 and 850, that lets lenders know how well you are paying off your debts and how much of a credit risk you are.
In general, the higher your credit score, the better credit risk you make and the more likely you are to be given credit at great rates. Scores in the low 600s and below will often give you trouble in finding credit, while scores of 720 and above will generally give you the best interest rates out there. However, credit scores are a lot like GPAs or SAT scores from college days while they give others a quick snapshot of how you are doing, they are interpreted by people in different ways. Some lenders put more emphasis on credit scores than others.

Tip #2 Keep the contact information for credit bureaus handy.

The three major credit bureaus are important to contact if you are going to be repairing your credit score. The major three credit agencies can help you by sending you your credit report. If you find an error on your credit report, these are also the companies you must contact in order to correct the problem. You can easily contact these organizations by mail, telephone, or through the Internet

Equifax Credit Information Services, Inc Address: P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374
Telephone 1 888 766 0008

TransUnion LLC Consumer Disclosure Center Address: P.O. Box 1000
Chester, PA 19022
Telephone 1 800 888 4213

Experian National Consumer Assistance Center Address: PO Box 2002
Allen, TX 75013
Telephone 1 888 397 3742

You may want to note this information wherever most of your financial information is kept so that you can easily contact the bureaus whenever you need to. Your local yellow pages should also have the contact information of these credit agencies as well.

Tip #3 Develop an action plan for dealing with your credit score.

Once you have your credit report and your credit score, you will be able to tell where you stand and where many of your problems lie. If you have a poor score, try to see in your credit report what could be causing the problem:

Do you have too much debt?
Too many unpaid bills?
Have you recently faced a major financial upset such as a bankruptcy?
Have you simply not had credit long enough to establish good credit?
Have you defaulted on a loan, failed to pay taxes, or recently been reported to a collection agency?

Tip #4 Pay your bills on time.

One of the best ways to improve your credit score is simply to pay your bills on time. This is absurdly simple but it works very well, because nothing shows lenders that you take debts seriously as much as a history of paying promptly. Every lender wants to be paid in full and on time.

If you pay all your bills on time then the odds are good that you will make the payments on a new debt on time, too, and that is certainly something every lender wants to see. Experts think that up to 35% of your credit score is based on your paying of bills on time, so this simple step is one of the easiest ways to boost your credit score.

Tip #5 Avoid excessive credit.

If you have many lines of credit or several huge debts, you make a worse credit risk because you are close to “overextending your credit.” This simply means that you may be taking on more credit than you can comfortably pay off. Even if you are making payments regularly now on existing bills, lenders know that you will have a harder time paying off your bills if your debt load grows too much.

The higher your debts the greater your monthly debt payments and so the higher the risk that you will eventually be able to repay your debts. Plus, statistical studies have shown that those with high debt loads have the hardest time financially when faced with a crisis such as a divorce, unemployment, or sudden illness.

Tip #6 Pay Down Your Debts

If you have a lot of debt, your credit score will suffer. Paying down your debts to a minimum will help elevate your credit score. For example, if you have a $1000 limit on your credit card and you regularly carry a balance of $900, you will be a less attractive credit risk to lenders than someone who has the same credit card but carries a smaller balance of $100 or so. If you are serious about improving your credit score, then start with the largest debt you have and start paying it down so that you are using a less large percentage of your credit total.

In general, try to make sure that you use no more than 50% of your credit. That means that if your credit card has a limit of $5000, make sure that you pay it down to at least $2500 and work at carrying no larger balance. If possible, reduce the debt even more. If you can pay off your credit card in full each month, that is even better. What counts here is what percentage of your total credit limit you are using – the lower the better.

Tip #7 Have a range of credit types.

The types of credit you have are a factor in calculating your credit score. In general, lenders like to see that you are able to handle a range of credit types well. Having some form of personal credit such as credit cards and some larger types of credit such as a mortgage or auto loan and paying them off regularly is better than having only one type of credit.

Tip #8 Look out for identity theft.

Many people who are careful about paying bills on time and having minimal debts are shocked each year to find that they have low credit scores. In many cases, this happens as a result of identity theft. Identity theft is a type of crime in which people take your personal information and steal that information to pose as you in order to get access to your accounts or identity.

For example, someone with your PIN numbers can remove small amounts of money from your bank account each month or someone can use your name and personal information to get credit cards in your name and use those credit cards with no intention of paying back the money. You are stuck with the large debts and the poor credit score.

To prevent identity theft, always check your account statements carefully each month. Report any suspicious activity or any charges you don’t recognize at once. Also check your credit report regularly and immediately investigate any new credit accounts you do not recognize – this is the best way of detecting and acting on identity theft.