"IMPROVE YOUR CREDIT SCORE"

Hey Folks lets shift gears a little......that's what my old mind does......but this is great! Want to get you started on that path to "Millionaire".

First things first, here are the things that negatively impact your credit score 1. Collections, Charge offs, Foreclosures, Tax Liens and/or Judgments 2. Delinquent accounts and late pay dates can account for 30% of your score 3. Any balance on a revolving credit account (revolving accounts are things like Credit cards, charge accounts) that have balances of 50% or more of the high credit limit 4. Inquiries Note: Medical collections do impact your score slightly but not very much. If the medical collection has been turned into a judgment, the judgment will impact your score a great deal.

I see many credit reports and the people with the highest score usually have 4-5 accounts. They have one or two that are installment loans, like a car or mortgage, and 2-3 that are revolving accounts that have low balances. In order to get a good score you need to have current good standing accounts. People who advise you to pay off all credit cards and never use them are COMPLETELY WRONG!! It’s always good to have a credit card with a small limit and keep the balance below 50% of that limit and pay it off every month.

Tips for cleaning up your credit report: 1. Pay all collections, charge offs, judgments (I would pay one off at a time instead of sending payments. Collections don’t show late dates and don’t show when your last payment was made. It’s not the balance on the collection that affects you, it is the collection its self 2. Get all credit card balances under 50% of the high credit limit (start with credit cards that are over limit). Close the ones you don’t use or don’t need. Do keep at least 1 or 2 cards open but keep the balances low and try to pay off each month 3. Call the credit bureaus to put in disputes on all accounts once they are paid. Some collectors will not report it “as paid in full”. Experian: 800-831-5614 Equifax: 800-685-1111 Trans Union: 800-916-8800.

Accounts will stay on your credit for 10 years as of the last date of activity. Make sure that ALL accounts are reporting right. All the accounts that are closed should show Account Closed and all balances should be correct. If they are not, contact the Bureaus above to correct. Inquiries affect the score slightly and will stay on for 2 years. Don’t just randomly apply for credit get selective about applying for credit at places you shop. The score model used to determine your scores is different for what credit you are applying . A mortgage score is the strictest and will always be lower than your consumer score. A consumer score is the score when you purchase unsecured credit. There is no report impact when you pull your own credit. A great site for free credit reports is www.freeannualcreditreport.com. You get one free credit report from each bureau a year. After that, I would use the Bureaus websites to pull and manage your credit. It’s usually cheaper than any other site.

More on Credit Repair later. Hope this helped.

Good Luck and Congrats on taking the first steps to getting your credit score back up!!! Remember "TAKE ACTION DO IT NOW!!"