One of the biggest things with the current economy is the credit score. Banks are scrutinizing your score for large and small loans. It is said that without a 700 Fico score you cannot purchase a car. How can you raise your score in a short period of time?
Pull individual credit reports from all three credit bureaus. You want to see report and determine what is dragging down your score. The following are some of the common culprits of a low fico or myfico score.
1- Have you applied for too many credit cards or extensions of credit in the last two years?
2- Do you have some late pays reported on your file?
3- Do you have collections reported on your file?
4- Is the balance to debt ration on all your revolving credit cards higher than 30 percent?
5- Do you hav any judgments or any public record entries on your credit file?
6- Do you have too many credit cards?
These are some of the questions you need to ask yourself when looking at a credit file. Now if one or more than one of the above ailments ring true on your credit file, why is it dragging your credit score and more importantly how can you fix it?
1- So you applied for too many cards or there are too many inquiries on your credit files. Some of which you do not recognize, With Equifax you can simply pick up the phone, call them and dispute the inquiries that you do not recognize. They usually remove them the same day. With Experiance, no such luck, about the only time I seen them remove listings or inquiries is when Credit Fraud is involved. With TransUnion the only way to remove inquiries is trough bumpage and that is time consuming.
2- You have some late pays reported on a loan, credit card or any other listing on your credit file. If you think the late payments where reported erroneously
Then you can draft a simple dispute letter to the credit bureaus requesting and investigation, dispute the erroneous listing. It can take up to a month for the credit bureau to take action. Keep in mind prior to disputing that if the trade line is old and the lates are older then 3 years to the date that you pull your credit file; then it might be on your best interest not to dispute the trade line as in some instances credit bureaus will remove a trade line altogether instead of just removing the erroneous information. Basically time is on your side when it comes to late payments, the more time that goes by since the late payment, the least impact this late will have on your credit score.
3- Do you have collections listed on your credit file, each case
