Kievgid

Let me start off by saying that understanding how the three major credit bureaus arrive at your credit score is one of the most powerful pieces of knowledge you can have. Most likely this is not something that you have ever been taught. In fact, when it comes to your credit scores, the three major credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and Transunion, run sort of a “black box” operation.

To explain what makes up your credit score in as simple terms possible, this is how it works

Payment History 35%: This is the largest contributing factor for your credit scores and represents your history of making payments with your creditors.

Credit Utilization 30%: The percentage of available credit used. Keeping your account balances below 50% of the available credit limit will maximize your scores. For the purpose of this article, this is where we will find the most room to quickly increase your scores.

Credit History 15%: How long your accounts have been open. Longer more established accounts are more positively weighted than newer accounts.

Inquiries 10%: When you apply for credit, an inquiry is made to your credit. If you have too many inquiries, your score can be negatively effected.

Credit Types In Use 10%: The number of accounts in use, and the type of credit accounts. Finance company accounts are of the lowest value, and too many of them can cause a negative effect on your scores.

Ok, now we have some powerfull knowledge. It’s time to put it to use with 2 things we can do in about 30 minutes to increase our credit scores…

Raise your limits! Raising your credit limits is much easier than you might think. Most people don’t realize that just by simply asking for a credit limit increase, you will most likely get one. We have proven this over and over again with clients. Just call the phone number on the back of your credit cards, and tell them you are considering transferring the balance to another card with a higher limit and lower interest rate, but that you would like to keep the account if they could just raise the credit limit. In my personal experience, it has worked 100% of the time. Often they will also lower the interest rate as a bonus. Lowering the interest rate will not help your credit score, but it will sure help your finances.

As an example scenario, let’s pretend that you have a credit card with a $5,000 limit, and a balance of $4,000 (80% utilized). You make a 10 minute call and get you limit increased to $6,500 which means now you are only 62% utilized. Much better, and immediately, your scores increase. Now we can do even better, which brings us to the next technique.

Bring your balances down! Let’s continue from the above example where you are now 62% utilized on your credit card. If you were to pay down $750 on this card, you could bring the balance down to $3,250 on a card with a limit of $6,500, and that would put your at 50% utilized. Now not everyone has the ability to pay more than the minimum payment on their cards, and that’s ok, you have already raised your scores. However, at 50% utilization, you will be able to maximize your scores. Now imagine if you did this on all your credit card accounts. Now, consider this… If you could raise your scores and get a better interest rate and lower monthly payments on a mortgage loan, or auto loan, you could save thousands over the life of that loan.

Both these techniques are fast and easy, and have been proven to work time an time again. I have used them personally, as well as assisted clients with them. I am confident they will also work for you.

Bear in mind that these techniques are recommended to those with a clean credit history. Credit card companies are more willing to work with those that have an established history of making payments on time. If you have negative items on your credit, perhaps a more aggressive credit repair approach is more appropriate.