http://www.smartcreditchoices.com/blog/2008/02/has-your-credit-score-surprised-you/ Be Smart About Credit Cards Thu, 24 Dec 2009 19:51:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://www.smartcreditchoices.com/blog/2008/02/has-your-credit-score-surprised-you/comment-page-1/#comment-133 admin Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:58:56 +0000 http://www.smartcreditchoices.com/blog/2008/02/has-your-credit-score-surprised-you/#comment-133 Thanks for the comment Max. Thanks for the comment Max.

]]> http://www.smartcreditchoices.com/blog/2008/02/has-your-credit-score-surprised-you/comment-page-1/#comment-124 Max Ray Thu, 06 Nov 2008 05:33:58 +0000 http://www.smartcreditchoices.com/blog/2008/02/has-your-credit-score-surprised-you/#comment-124 I will start it with an example as in you may be out of school, but that doesn’t mean you’re free from report cards. In fact, if you want to buy a house, or any other big-ticket item, a lender will look up your “grade” as soon as you come knocking. That grade is your credit score. There are many varieties of credit scores available to lenders. But the most widely used for large loans are <a href="http://www.creditmagic.org/knowledgebank/credit-scoring.html" rel="nofollow">FICO SCORES</a>, which are based on a scoring system developed by Fair, Isaac & Co. Following are five things you can do to boost your creditworthiness, plus more information on obtaining your personal score. 1.) Review your reports from all three credit bureaus for accuracy once a year as well as several months before applying for a loan. 2.) Paying your bills on time is always a good practice, and it’s especially critical that you make prompt payments close to the time you need a loan. 3.) A heavily weighted factor in your FICO score is how much money you owe on your credit cards relative to your total credit limit. Generally, it’s good to keep your balances at or below 25 percent of your credit card limit 4.) Pay off debt rather than moving it around i.e. since the ratio of your credit card balance to your credit limit is key, closing out an account and transferring the balance simply means you increase that ratio, which is likely to lower your score. 5.) Don’t close unused credit card accounts near loan time. I will start it with an example as in you may be out of school, but that doesn’t mean you’re free from report cards. In fact, if you want to buy a house, or any other big-ticket item, a lender will look up your “grade” as soon as you come knocking. That grade is your credit score.
There are many varieties of credit scores available to lenders. But the most widely used for large loans are FICO SCORES, which are based on a scoring system developed by Fair, Isaac & Co. Following are five things you can do to boost your creditworthiness, plus more information on obtaining your personal score.
1.) Review your reports from all three credit bureaus for accuracy once a year as well as several months before applying for a loan.
2.) Paying your bills on time is always a good practice, and it’s especially critical that you make prompt payments close to the time you need a loan.
3.) A heavily weighted factor in your FICO score is how much money you owe on your credit cards relative to your total credit limit. Generally, it’s good to keep your balances at or below 25 percent of your credit card limit
4.) Pay off debt rather than moving it around i.e. since the ratio of your credit card balance to your credit limit is key, closing out an account and transferring the balance simply means you increase that ratio, which is likely to lower your score.
5.) Don’t close unused credit card accounts near loan time.

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