9 Steps to Perfect Credit - Monique Rich

9 Steps to Perfect Credit- Monique Rich

Here are 9 things that you can do to get or maintain perfect credit.

1. Pull your credit report quarterly (every 3 months) to ensure accurate information is being reported. Some creditors do not report your credit history every 30 days, but do so every 90 days, for example American Express.
2. If you have negative and inaccurate information reporting on your credit report, dispute it with all 3 credit bureaus. Depending on the outcome of the results, you may need to contact the creditor directly and negotiate a settlement. If you negotiate a settlement, make sure you have the creditor change the account to read “paid as agreed” instead of “paid collection.” In doing so, this account will report as a positive status, thus increasing your score instead of lowering it by reporting as a negative account.
3. Comprise a budget to bring your “revolving” debt to less than 30% of what the actual balance owing on the card is. Doing this will lower what is known as your “DTI,” debt to income ratio, and will increase your overall score. Revolving debt consist of credit cards or lines of credit that may be paid in full or in monthly installments.
4. Review your FICO Score quarterly to see where your credit score is. Doing this allows you to see what areas you need to improve in to increase your score.
5. Enhance your credit score by adding trade lines (trade lines is another word for account) to your report or by piggy backing off of someone with excellent credit. Ask someone that you trust to add you to their credit card as a co-signor if possible which looks a lot better than just being added as an authorized user.
6. Limit the number of inquiries that you have per year. Most creditors frown when you have more than two inquiries every 6-12 months.
7. Try not to apply for new credit. The older the accounts the better. If there is a particular card that you need, try and see if you can use the piggy back method before applying for any new cards.
8. Do not fall behind on payments. Late payments decrease your score by 30 points. If you’re going to be late call and inform the creditor so the late payment does not affect your score as much.
9. Re-evaluate your credit options. If you’re spending unnecessary money on a loan and can re-finance to save money, then by all means, do it. Incorporate your new monthly savings into your budget and apply the money saved to other bills that is listed in your budget.