How to Improve Your Credit Score

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Maria Enomoto from Consumer Credit Counseling Service and today we're going to learn how to improve your credit score. The credit score, it's the big number that shows how you are doing with your credit history. So, basically the first thing that you need to know, is what's going on on your credit report. Pull a credit report and make sure what information do you have there? Check if every, all the information is correct, is updated and you may want to update anything that is not updated. Or you may want to correct anything that it's wrong on your credit report. If you check it out and everything that is on your credit report it's, it's still your information and it's updated and it's true, what you want to do is, to make sure you are paying your account on time. If you have credit card, you need to pay the amount, a minimum, or more before or by the payment due date, so you're going to be a report that it's late. Another thing that you want to check is how much of your credit limit you are using. The closer you are to your credit limit, the scarier that you are going to become. So, if you are using more than fifty percent of your credit limit, and this is showing in your balance, then, you may want to lower that balance, just to make sure your score is going to be better. Usually the fifty percent is the margin that they use to make sure if you are controlling your balances and you are controlling good your finances. Or, if you are having some issues and you send more credit rather than paying it off sooner. And another thing that you want to check is, if you have any collection information. If you had any collection information, and it's showing on your credit report, and still has balance, the best thing that you can do it's paid off that balance or make arrangements to pay that balance in monthly payments. Because the best thing that you can have is a zero balance on any collection account. The collection account per se, it’s bad for your credit report, but, at least you're going to be able to improve a little bit of your score if you have a paid collection."