Your credit score is probably one of the most important aspects of your financials, and it is crucial to stay on top of it when obtaining a mortgage. At this point, you may have checked your credit score and are now unsure of your options for improvement. However, raising your credit score doesn’t have to be too complicated, so here are 12 simple ways you can to start improving your credit score today:
- Pay bills on time. If you are delinquent, bring the payments current as quickly as possible.
- Keep the oldest accounts active, provided they have no late payments ever.
- Keep balances low on credit cards and other revolving debt.
- If credit cards cannot be paid down and percentages decreased, consider contacting the credit card company and requesting a credit line increase.
- Don’t close unused credit cards as a method to increase credit scores.
- Don’t open or apply for new credit cards just to increase available credit.
- Don’t pay collections that have a “last activity date” of more than six months old and a balance of no more than a few hundred dollars.
- Have two or three bank cards. Department store credit cards impact your score differently and are not considered in the same regard as bank cards.
- When paying off collection accounts, get a letter from the collection agency that states “paid in full” or that the “account was reported in error.”
- Review your credit report and write dispute letters for any account that is inaccurate.
- Consider adding a secured card as a way to add additional credit or to rebuild credit.
- When decreasing the number of credit cards you maintain, if a credit card has ever been late, close it first.
You can find these tips and more in Dave Sullivan’s book Advanced Credit Scoring.
While improving your credit score doesn’t have to be overly difficult or complicated, it can still take some time to see results. The best thing you can do is take advantage of these tips and make sure you continue to be responsible with your credit. Doing these things are some of the first steps on the road to homeownership. If you are interested to see what kind of mortgage you may qualify for, give us a call today or click here to start the pre-approval process!