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Improving your online credit rating takes a little work but is well worth the effort. This one report can affect so many of your financial opportunities that making sure you have as high of a score as possible can save you substantial money every day. The process of fixing your online report can involve a few different techniques but is a project that will pay financial dividends for years to come. Request a Copy of Your Current Reports Any effort to raise your score should start with you obtaining free copies of your current reports from all three agencies. These reports will provide all the insight you need. They will show you what your current score is and where you'll need to focus to improve it. Because all of the agencies use different techniques when calculating your score, you may need to apply different techniques for each of them to squeeze out those last few credit points. Knowing where you stand with your current credit profile is half the battle, and makes all of your efforts much easier. Dispute Any Obvious Errors First Once you have the tree reports, take some time to scour them individually for any errors. Don't scan them lightly, really spend some time going through them line by line to make sure you don't miss anything. Most consumers find at least one error in their report while doing this review. Correcting that error is sure to raise your score and only takes a few minutes to accomplish. As you go through the reports start a list of all the errors you find and note the action you took as well as the date so you can track your progress. Some errors are more difficult to remove than others and you may need to file several disputes to have these difficult errors erased. With all of the credit bureaus, you can file these disputes online and will be notified of the results. The lenders whose details you challenge only have a short timeframe to respond and if they can't verify the derogatory details quickly, the information will deleted from your online credit report. Consider Adding a New Card or Two As strange as it sounds, adding a new credit card or two can actually help your credit rating. By adding a new card you'll be increasing the amount of your available credit and this can help lower your debt to credit ratio. Be careful to only apply for cards that you have been pre-approved so you know you will be extended credit. Also avoid using these cards as this will defeat the whole reason for adding them. When you apply for these cards the creditor will request a copy of your online credit report and this may cause your score to dip for a few weeks. This change will be temporary and the benefit of increasing your available credit will have a much larger positive impact on your rating. Pay down What You Can Eliminating some of your debt will have a huge impact on raising your credit score. If you don't have the funds to pay off these cards, at least make more than the minimum payment required on the cards each month. Be sure to balance these payments out among all of your cards as you don't want to end up with a card or two carrying a balance close to their limit. If this happens it can lower your rating substantially, since it appears that you're not managing your credit responsibly. Some consumers have used a home equity loan to pay off some of their short-term credit card debt. This not only eliminates the higher interest that these cards typically charge, it will also simplify your finances and reduce the number of payments you have to make each month. Talk To Your Current Lenders Another easy way to improve your credit score quickly is by asking your current lenders to increase the limits on your existing cards. Since you may have a longer financial history with these lenders, they may be able to do this over the phone. If they ask you for a reason, mention that you are considering which of your cards you should keep and having a higher limit on their card will allow you to cancel another one and use this card more often. When you call your lenders, start with the one you have the longest history with and work up to the newest. While you're speaking with them, ask them if they would consider lowering the interest rate on your cards. While they may require you to apply for the lower rate, many lenders will do this with a phone call, especially if you have been current on your monthly payments. Sam Jones the author of this article often recommends uSwitch.com to readers wishing to find out more information about doing an online credit rating.
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online credit rating, credit reports, debt advice, credit agency checks,
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