June 25, 2019
Greetings Thrifty Friends,
Our credit scores affect a lot in our financial lives, from the interest rates on our loans to how much we pay for insurance.
So if your credit score is in the dumps you might need to give it a bump fast. I know from personal experience. The last house I bought I needed a score of 750 in order to qualify for a lower rate, but what I had was a 740 and one month to boost it ten points.
Here are a couple of tricks that worked for me, and they can work for you, too.
Keep pinchin' those pennies,
Penny
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TODAY'S THRIFTY TIP:
Up your credit. It seems a little counterintuitive, but part of your credit score depends on how much debt you have versus how much credit you have available. It is a ratio. If you're using $2,500 of $5,000 available credit, but then open an account with another $5,000 in available credit, you will cut your credit utilization score from 50 percent to 25 percent. The key is not to use any of that new credit until you've paid off that old debt.
Late payments are a credit score killer. If you've been a longtime account holder or a frequent customer and have a late payment on your record, you may be able to beg your creditors for forgiveness and scrub the offending mark from your record.
Look for mistakes! Get a free copy of your credit report from the credit reporting agencies themselves. Review the status of your accounts, your credit limits and your personal information. You could be suffering the consequences of something as simple as a traffic ticket you forgot to pay off or even an error. Every point helps.
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