Having bad credit can make you miss out on a lot of good stuff in life. You have bad credit when your score value is at 619 or below. Having a low value only gives you higher insurance to pay, and you would not qualify for any loans with low-interest rates or any loans at all. This is because lenders take your credit status into consideration and decide accordingly if you will be getting a loan or not. Your score determines your interest rate and loan eligibility. Obviously, the lower your score the higher your interest rates. However, this doesn’t have to be the case, as there are many options out there for you to improve your credit score.
To rebuild your credit score, here are some things that you need to do:
Check your credit report
In order to know where you stand financially, you need to check your credit report. It will help you locate your financial problem and know how you can work on improving it. That is why knowing your financial history is one of the important first steps to take. Based on this guide by Money Trumpet, repairing your credit repair can start by correcting the errors that may have brought your score down, which can provide you with a brighter financial future. Errors and fraudulent activities are a lot more common than you think. Bottom line, you need to keep track of everything in order to start improving your credit score.
Start catching up on your payments
Planning things ahead can never cause you any harm. It helps you rest assured that everything is done correctly. As timely payment is one of the contributing factors to your bad score, you need to develop a plan to avoid having a bad payment history. This is easily done by making some payment arrangements with your creditors. Be completely honest with them and try to settle on the amount of money that you can pay, as well as the time that you need to pay them. This way you will start enhancing your score by keeping up with your payments.
Pay everything on time
As mentioned, your payment history is very important, so, you need to make sure that it stays perfect in order to rebuild your credit score. To do that properly, avoid paying anything late to begin with. If you have never missed a payment, keep it up. It is very vital that you don’t miss out or have any late payments.
Don’t close any credit card accounts
Having a running credit card account, that is paid on time, is known to improve your bad credit. The more credit history you have, the better your credit score gets. However, you need to make sure that your credit history is perfect. In other words, you need to make all your payments on time and have no debts.
Become an authorized user on a credit card
Being an authorized user on someone’s credit card gives you the chance to benefit from being on the account without having to pay any charges or access the account. You can ask anyone to add you as an authorized user. You can even let them set you a spending limit on this credit card for them to be comfortable with it. However, you need to make sure you choose the right person who pays their bills on time. In other words, to become an authorized user on the credit card of someone with a good credit score will benefit you and help build your credit..
Get a secured credit card
To easily and quickly rebuild your credit score you need to use a credit card. A secured credit card is your way out. What makes it different from a regular credit card is that your money gets linked to a savings account as collateral. Taking such a step will increase your credit score when your payments get reported to the credit bureau. This makes the bureau know that you are paying your dues on a regular basis and on time. Once they note such action after a couple of months, you can get an unsecured credit card and better credit score.
The time needed to improve your credit score will depend on how bad your credit score is. However, sooner or later you will manage to change that. All you need is to change your financial habits to the best. Additionally, having good financial habits will make things easier for you when trying to maintain a good credit score.