5 Ways To Improve Your Credit Score

Your credit report and your credit score are going to follow you around for the rest of your life. They will be the first things your banker is going to look at when you apply for a loan or mortgage. Even your future employer may browse your credit score before deciding to hire you.

Your credit score is important to your financial future. You need to look after it. Protect it. And most importantly - fix it.

When the economy took its little down swing a while ago many people struggled financially. Bill payments may have been missed and maybe some debt became piled up.

Now that the economy is slowly but surly turning around it is a good time to review your credit report and see if you can improve your credit score. The following 5 steps should give you an idea how to make improvements:

1. Obtain a copy of your credit report. An obvious first step but many people try to improve their credit score without knowing where the problems are. The website: www.annualcreditreport.com will provide you with your credit report once every twelve months at no cost.
2. Check your report for errors. Mistakes happen usually due to carelessness and misinformation. Review your credit report and look for any errors that will negatively affect your credit score. If you find some then make the effort to correct them.
3. Pay you bills. Pay off all your credit card debt, utility bills and any other bill you are late on and paying interest for. If you need to, see your loans officer at your bank and arrange for a loan to pay this debt off. A bank loan will be at a lower interest rate and you will back in good standing with your credit card and utility companies. More importantly, paying your bills in full and on time is a big plus for your credit score.
4. If possible show permanence. Your credit score may be influenced negatively if you are viewed as being transient. Get a full time job, buy a house, be on the electoral list, get married, have some kids - these all help to show permanence and are reflected somewhat on your credit score.
5. Carry less debt. A credit card is a great way to boost your credit score but you need to make an effort not to use more than 30% of the limit available to you. It also helps if you have more than just credit card debt. A car loan and/or mortgage will help to show that you have experience managing debt - as long as you are not maxed out all the time.

You credit score is affected in some way by almost everything you do. Its lurking quietly behind you, following wherever you go and influencing what you do in the future.

It's up to you to keep track of your credit score so monitor your credit report closely so that you can quickly fix any errors before they bring your score down.