What Exactly Is A Credit Score? Credit Report?

Credit Report is a detailed statement of your credit history. It provides lenders the information about how you manage your finances from paying your bills, debts, bill payment history such mortgage payments, settling credit card balances and more.

A particular lender or creditor depends on a larger part on what is reflected on your credit report whether these are accurate or not. Therefore, it is very important for everyone to check on your credit report at least once a year to see if all of the information recorded in your credit history are true and work on repairing reports in your credit history about an error which is needed in order to repair your credit history.

AOL Money has an interesting information about requesting free credit report stipulated under the Fair Credit Reporting Act(available in pdf file) or with a fee with one of the three major credit bureaus in the US: Equifax, Experian and Trans Union.

Scams Loom to Increase Damaged Credit Scores

People who have had bad credit due to non payment of any outstanding bills or any household utilities, or those who have experienced bad credit due to finances gone out of control (declaring bankruptcy), one may find it really tempting to get the assistance of institutions or websites that offers services for a fee that profess "healing" your bad credit score and miraculously get it back to its normal status.

According to finance experts, fixing your credit score will always take time and there has been no easy or quick way to fix it. One needs to establish good record on your payment history and pay all your debts and keep all existing balances low are just some of the key to getting your credit score's feet on the ground.

A President of the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater Chicago, Catherine Williams, simply explained that, "the only way to heal your credit is with new, regular, ontime payments — and by paying off the old debt." SmartMoney has the latest article on this issue.

Reviewing Credit Reports for Excellent Credit Score

A good credit report is just one of your passport to success to multitude of financing matters.

More often than not, most people are not mindful about their finances that they forget to check on the status of their credit score. It should be noted that a good credit score lessens your interest rates for loans and helps you get through successful pending loan requests and others.

AOL Money lists simple steps to keeping your credit score at bay all the time.

Keys to Great Credit: Know Your Credit Reports

A good credit score and solid credit history can get you the house you want at the best interest rate. It keeps credit card interest rates in check and gives you negotiating power with credit card companies, auto lenders and more.

• Review your credit reports once a year: It is the only way to track your credit history, detect credit history errors and fraudulent accounts in your name.
• Obtain your credit score once a year: This number will let you know if you need to repair your credit. A good credit score can save a lot of money through better interest rates on secured and unsecured loans.
• Repair Your Credit: If your pay late because you have too many bills or they are too high, get help with your debt and be proactive talking to creditors.

Repair Bad Credit By Using Secured Credit Card

A lot of things has been said about using secured credit cards in repairing credit. Perhaps, it is one of the most reliable way of telling businesses that you are responsible enough to have your damaged credit restored to its normal status and keep the business and yourself secured as well.

Secured means that the business has the ability to deduct any outstanding payment to the money that you put on the secured credit card should you fail to pay them on time. Its like putting in money to the credit card you have applied for that serves as a collateral in some ways. The process protects you as well since increasing numbers of financial institutions refuse offering credit cards to people with bad credit.

By applying and gaining access to a secured credit, and manage it effectively, you will be given the chance to restore your outstanding credit status and pay off any outstanding balances you have had with other companies and increase your chances of securing another unsecured credit cards.

5 Ways to Improve Credit Score

An interesting news published at CNN on September 21, 2005 on how to improve credit score catched my attention today. It may be old, but the value of the information listed on the site provides information to the general public about the value of credit score in relation affecting your ability to apply for loans and other benefits such as special promotion for service subscriptions.

So I will be adding another set of tips that helps you in improving your credit score based on the article published at CNN.

5 Ways to Boost Your Credit Score

• Pay your bills on time. Delinquent payments can have a major negative impact on your score and the longer you pay your bills on time, the better your score. For example, someone with an average credit rating of 707 can raise their score by as much as 20 points by paying all their bills on time for one month.
• Keep balances low on credit cards. High outstanding debt can affect your score. Maxing out your credit cards could lower your average score by as much as 70 points.
• Don't open a number of new credit cards that you don't need. New accounts will lower your average account age, which could actually lower your score by up to 10 points.
• Have credit cards - but manage them responsibly. In general, having credit cards and installment loans (and making timely payments) will raise your score. Someone with no credit cards, for example, tends to be higher risk than someone who has managed credit cards responsibly.
• Closing an account doesn't make it go away. A closed account will still show up on your credit report and may be factored into the score.