How Do You Build Credit-Tips for Starting A Positive Credit History

Almost everyone needs credit. If you are renting an apartment, applying for a mortgage, applying for a car loan, or even applying for a job, you will need some type of credit history, as credit decisions are often based on your prior use of credit. If you are a young adult or are still in college, you have a unique opportunity to start building a solid credit history that can serve you for many years to come. By carefully building credit and avoiding credit mistakes, you can insure a strong credit history.

Although you may not have credit yet, you should try to get a copy of your credit report for the credit bureaus, so you can check if there is any inaccurate information. Additionally, you will want to make sure that you haven’t been a victim of identity theft, with someone using your name and trashing your credit. The three bureaus are: Equifax, Experian and Trans Union, and they can be contacted online, as well as by phone and mail.

One of the first steps to building credit is to open a checking and a savings account in your name. You may already have an account, and it is something many lenders will look at, as it show stability. If you only have a checking account, you may also want to open a savings account as well, which can be used as collateral for a secured loan, if necessary.

You should also have as many bills as you can listed in your name, such as your telephone and cellular bill. Make sure you pay all of your bills on time, as this is a major factor in your credit score. If you can, try to establish the accounts in your name only.  Read more...

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How to Build Credit for the House You Want

As real estate agents, we get a lot of questions about financing a home.  With the credit crunch that we’re seeing right now with home loans, I wanted to write just briefly about how buyers can build credit before they buy.  If you know that you’ll be buying a home in the near future, you may as well take advantage of the time you have to work on building credit. 

 

Two things are very important when building credit.  First, you need to have a high limit and a low balance.  The more you have of this combination, the better your score.  Second, you need to make your payments on time.  These two things will build a credit score in no time. 

 

For example, we worked with a lady recently and recommended that she speak with a lender.  She had a credit score in the low 500s and needed to boost it before she could buy the kind of home that she wanted.  Her credit report showed that she had not paid a few things.  She actually had paid these things, but the creditor did not update the report to show that she had paid in full.  So, her loan officer made two corrections in her report showing that she had paid what she in fact had.  Doing this changed her ratio of credit limit to amount owed (in other words, her true balance).  Correcting this amount owed increased her credit score more than 100 points in about a week.  That’s about as quick of a change in credit score that you can hope for!

 

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Tags: Build, Credit, House, Want

Six Proven Methods of How to Build Credit and Improve Your Credit Score

When it comes to how to build credit, it’s hard to know which ways work and which ways aren’t effective. The credit bureaus are always changing the way they formulate credit scores, and nobody really knows the exact formula that FICO uses to apply a credit score to a persons file. We do however have enough information that FICO has released that lets us put together, very accurately, proven strategies to start increasing your credit score.

 

Depending on your current situation (if you’re starting with a clean slate or have had some credit related blemishes in the past) the time it will take for your credit score to increase will vary some. It’s obviously going to be much easier and quicker to build credit if there is no harmful credit marks in the past, but if there are that just means that it may take a little while longer to improve your credit score.

 

The proven strategies on how to build credit:

 

1. How to Build Credit Tip 1: Get a Secured Credit Card: It may be hard to get an unsecured credit card when you have bad credit or no credit, so you may need to get a secured credit card. These are great because they’ll report to all three of the credit bureaus, and if managed right (keeping the balances low and payments on time) you’re credit score will raise over time and create enough of a credit file to be able to get a more traditional unsecured credit card. There is a very slim chance of being turned down for a secured credit card because they will require you to give a deposit up front to secure your credit line. Ideally you’ll be able to convert these to an unsecured credit card after 12-18 months of a good payment history.  Read more...

Tags: Build, Credit, Improve, Methods, Proven, Score

The ABCs of Gold Investing: How to Protect and Build Your Wealth with Gold

• ISBN13: 9781886039728
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Product Description
Beginning investors will find thorough guidelines for making good decisions in this guide to private gold ownership. Emphasis is placed on the asset-preservation qualities of gold at a time when investor uncertainty about the economy and recent investment scandals have led many to seek asset diversification. The economic and political trends driving gold marketing are detailed, as are the reasons why gold plays an important role in millions of investment portfolios … More >>

The ABCs of Gold Investing: How to Protect and Build Your Wealth with Gold

Tags: ABCs, Build, Gold, Investing, Protect, Wealth