Credit Scores
Recently consumers were given opportunity to pull their credit reports free from each of the three major credit bureaus.
Credit scores are not free
Each spouse has a separate score. Credit scores must be purchased unless the consumer is applying for a home loan or is offered one for free through a lender (Providian, for instance, offers free access to credit scores).
Tips on improving your score
Providian and CFA offered the following tips to improve your score:
Pay bills consistently and on time.
Don't max out credit cards.
Avoid opening a lot of new credit accounts in a short time.
Keep an eye on your credit-limit ratio. That is, if all of your credit-card balances combined are more than about 50% of your total available credit (all of your credit-card limits) combined, consider paying down balances to get that ratio below 50% to improve your score.
Get your free credit reports through http://www.AnnualCreditReport.com to make sure there are no errors on your reports that may be hurting your score.
Credit scores are not free
Each spouse has a separate score. Credit scores must be purchased unless the consumer is applying for a home loan or is offered one for free through a lender (Providian, for instance, offers free access to credit scores).
Tips on improving your score
Providian and CFA offered the following tips to improve your score:
Pay bills consistently and on time.
Don't max out credit cards.
Avoid opening a lot of new credit accounts in a short time.
Keep an eye on your credit-limit ratio. That is, if all of your credit-card balances combined are more than about 50% of your total available credit (all of your credit-card limits) combined, consider paying down balances to get that ratio below 50% to improve your score.
Get your free credit reports through http://www.AnnualCreditReport.com to make sure there are no errors on your reports that may be hurting your score.
posted by JamesB at 9:00 AM
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