Improve Your Credit Score

As stated in the last blog entry, improving your credit score can save you thousands on your next home loan. According to Kellie Allen of Countrywide Home Loans in Eagle here are a few steps to take to start improving your credit profile.

“There is no magic to improving your credit score. Credit scores automatically improve as your credit profile gets better. Improving your credit profile is not always a quick fix, however. Here are a few things to remember:

• Pay down all your credit card balances to below 30% of the available credit balance.
• Do not consolidate accounts onto one or two cards and close other accounts. Low balances on a few cards are better than high balances on the one or two credit cards
  you still have left open. Consolidation of your balances will artificially skew the appearance of your credit utilization.
• Keep the number of credit cards you own to a conservative number, but don’t close accounts without the advice of a knowledgeable mortgage broker.
• Review your credit report for accuracy at least 90 days before you intend to apply for a mortgage. Have any inaccurate information corrected at the repository that is
  reporting the erroneous information on your report.
• Understand that paying off a collection account or judgment, for example, will not eliminate it from your credit profile. Paid or satisfied negative credit items will show a
  zero balance, but will not disappear from your credit profile for seven years - they still reflect a late or a collection account even if you paid it off.”

Thanks, Kellie for the sound advice