If you’ve been struggling with poor credit, you need to think about getting it repaired if you want to leverage getting a loan any time in your future. You never know when your credit report will come back to haunt you. Right now, to get a loan for a home, to open a credit card, or to buy a car, you need to have excellent credit. Furthermore, if you want to rent an apartment, or even get certain jobs, you have to have good credit. Even employers don’t want to trust people with their money if they’ve shown poor personal finance choices.
Editions TV with Terry Bradshaw takes a look at some of the best ways you can repair your credit, so that you can get back into a normal financial life.
Get on Schedule
The first thing you need to do is get on a schedule for paying your bills. One of the biggest factors of your credit score is on time payments. Just being late on one payment can drop your credit score by 50 points for up to 7 years. Creditors value reliability, and they want to know that you can pay all your bills on time every month.
So, to get started rebuilding your credit, Editions TV recommends that you setup a schedule of when each of your bills is due so that you can ensure that you pay them on time. Even if you only make the minimum payments each month, you have to make them on time.
Put Everything on One Card
An easy way to help you make sure that you pay everything on time is to put everything on one card. This can be a credit card, if you still have one, or a debit card. By streamlining all your bills in one place, you can help yourself avoid being late on any payments. By establishing a solid payment history, you can start to rebuild your credit.
As you start looking to really build up your score, consider making the payments early each month. You credit card companies report the balance due on your due date. So, if you pay off the card before the due date, the credit card company will report “$0” balance, which looks really good on your credit report. So, even if you pay off your cards in full each month, unless the card is $0 on the due date, you will still show you owe something.
Open The First Card You Can
As your credit starts to improve, you will start to get credit card offers. This is a good thing, and you should take advantage of the first credit card offer you receive. Then, once you open the card, you should start to charge everything you can to the card and paying it off in full each month. New credit history can really help boost your score and typically outweighs your old credit history.
After you’ve been paying the card for some time, call the credit card company and ask your limit to be raised. An aspect of your credit score is the percentage of credit used, so by increasing your credit line and NOT using it, you can raise your score. It’s little tricks like this that can get you a few points on your credit score here and there.
Leverage Automation on Editions TV
Finally, Editions TV Show can show you how you can leverage the power of automation to pay your bills on time. Almost every credit card, utility, and many other companies offer automatic payment options to help you manage your bills. You should sign up for as many automatic payment programs as possible, and leverage your credit cards to pay them off on time. Establishing an automatic payment routine will help you build good credit faster. Plus, since length of credit is an important factor in your credit score, using your old credit cards once you paid them down is a great way to continue to build a solid credit history.