How to Easily Improve Your Credit Score

Having poor credit can hold you back in so many ways but what you may not know is that having bad or poor credit could actually cost you a job.

This is because believe it or not your employer could be checking your credit report. Sounds crazy, I know but some employers believe that bad credit also makes you a risk as an employee.

The reason for this is because in their eyes it makes you look less responsible.
And that's not a quality that is valued in an employee. So even if your credit has suffered lately there's always time to fix things and the sooner the better. This article on how to easily improve your credit score will help you to quickly improve your credit score.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Check your credit report:
   The first thing that you will need to do is to get a copy of your credit report. You can get a free copy once every 12 months so there's really no reason to have to pay for one. Now that you have the credit report it's time to check it for accuracy and make a note of anything that's not accurate, because you will need to dispute this later on.

2. Pay your bills on time:
   One way to improve your credit score is to make an effort to always pay your bills on time. Your payment history is one of the most important things on your credit report and if you're consistently late on certain bills it will show. As you pay on time each month your credit score will gradually go up each month.

3. Be careful what you buy:
   Now it seems that you also have be careful with what you purchase with your credit cards. Credit card companies are actually monitoring your spending habits. And if they notice that say for instance you used your cards to pay off taxes, or have your tires retreaded. They may just decide that you look like a credit risk and lower the limits on your credit cards, which will also have an effect on your credit score.

4. Don't overspend:
   Don't charge more than 20% of the limit on your credit card. This is because being close to the limit on your card will lower your credit score. So if it's to late for that then you need to start paying that card down as soon as possible.

5. Credit repair:
   If you've paid a bill and it's still showing up on your credit report then contact the original creditor and see if they will have it removed from your credit report, many times this is all it takes. And you don't have to pay a credit repair agency to get it done.

6. Dispute problems:
   If you tried unsuccessful to have inaccuracies removed from your credit report then it's time to dispute this with the credit bureaus. This will have to be done with each bureau that lists the inaccuracy. By law the credit bureau has to remove a disputed item from your credit report for 30 days. After which if you have failed to make your case it will then be put back on the report but at this time you can have the word disputed listed next to the item as well as have a 100 word note placed next to it on your credit report.

7. Repair your credit score:
   By now you may have realized that it's much easier to lower than it is to repair your credit score. But that doesn't mean that you should give up, it just means that you may have to work a little harder to repair your credit.

Tips & Warnings

• In some cases you may be able to negotiate with creditors to have unpaid items removed from your credit report if you agree to pay the bill in full.
• You can find the information on how to dispute an item on each website for the major credit bureaus.
• Watch out for credit repair scams.

Resources

• Annual Credit Report