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Fix Your Credit Score

By: Shayne A. Sherman


Read More About Credit Reports and Repair

Learning about credit scores is vital to your financial health. You should understand how different factors alter your credit so that you can keep from making errors and avoid trying to fix your credit later.
Credit scores come from three large companies and each has a different formula that it uses. However, FICO’s credit score formula is a good example of the factors that alter your credit rating:
Percentage Factor
35% Payment History
30% Total Debt
15% Length of Credit History
10% Number of Inquiries
10% Types of Credit
Score Totals
In most cases, credit scores will vary between 300 and 800. Scores over 800 depict near perfect credit. This score reflects to a potential lender your credit risk at any one point in time. It changes along with alterations to your credit history. If you find you have a low score, it is useful to fix your credit score before applying for any loans.
Payment History
Payment history is how often you paid ontime. Usually, you can send the check late once or twice without a problem showing up on your report. If you are late commonly, you can expect the creditor to notify one of the credit agencies.
Total Debt
Total debt refers to the balance you owe altogether on credit cards, student loans and property. This is often compared with how much income you make in the debt to income ratio.
Length of History
It may seem that the length of your credit history starts from the first time you ever applied for a loan, but this can change. If you have ever filed bankruptcy, you are beginning all over again.
Credit Inquiries
New credit refers to how often you have applied for new credit. According to FICO, most credit card holders only have one inquiry on their reports during each year.
Types of Credit
Types of credit comes in to play with respect to which of your debts are installment loans and which balances are credit cards. Most people have about three times as many credit card accounts as installment loans on their report.
Sometimes, a debt will show up on one report, but not another. This is because of the various formulas used by the different credit reporting agencies. This may be a good thing or a bad thing relative to your particular situation. For this reason, it is very important that you know what is on your credit report.
Where to get a Copy of Your Credit Report
Before making any large financial purchases or applying for a job, make sure you get a copy of your credit report. You can either do this by yourself, or save time and enlist the services of credit repair companies. Not only can these companies get your reports for you, then can also help in fixing credit problems that you might discover on the report. You can contact the major credit reporting companies at the addresses below.
Equifax
P.O. Box 740256
Atlanta, GA 30374-0256
1-800-685-1111
Experian
P.O. Box 2104
Allen, TX 75013-2104
1-888-397-3742
Trans Union
P.O. Box 1000
Chester, PA 19022
1-800-916-8800
The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, known as FACT, gives you the right to get a copy of your credit report. You can do this for free once every year from each agency.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

To learn more about how to fix your credit scores, please visit my Lexington Law Firm review page, or call 1-800-258-0062 for a free credit counceltation.

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