Credit agency Gainesville

"It definitely pays to have a good FICO Score," says Greg Pelling, vice president of Scoring and Analytics at FICO, the leading developer credit agency Gainesville of credit scores. "Based on today's credit agency Gainesville rates, a good score could save you almost $6,000 in interest payments on a three-year, $25,000 car loan. Or save you $30,000 on a $100,000 home loan over 30 years, if your score is above 740 rather than below 620. Lenders base their decision on many factors but your FICO score plays a major role." Banish late payments. A single late mortgage payment could knock 100 points off your score, so set credit agency Gainesville up automatic payments for recurring bills (mortgage, credit agency Gainesville utilities, etc.). Also consider setting up automatic minimum credit card payments if you'credit agency Gainesville re prone to forgetting or travel credit agency Gainesville a lot.

And sign up for text or email alerts from your bank or credit union for when your credit agency Gainesville balance drops below a minimum amount. Monitor 'utilization.' Exceeding individual credit limits credit agency Gainesville is another good way to get dinged. In fact, the lower your credit utilization ratio (the percentage of available credit credit agency Gainesville you're using), the better. free credit repot

Try credit agency Gainesville to keep your overall utilization ratio -- and the ratios on individual cards or lines of credit -- below credit agency Gainesville 30 percent. Although it usually it makes sense to pay down credit accounts with higher interest rates first, if you've tapped more than 30 percent credit agency Gainesville of available credit on a particular card, credit agency Gainesville bringing that percentage down first may credit agency Gainesville help boost your score more quickly.

Timing is critical. Even if you credit agency Gainesville pay off your balance each month, credit agency Gainesville showing a high utilization ratio at any time during the month could conceivably hurt your score if the statement balance credit agency Gainesville is elevated when it gets reported to the credit bureaus. This is especially credit agency Gainesville problematic for people whose credit limits were lowered after the recession began. view credit report

A few suggestions:

Spread purchases among multiple cards to keep individual balances lower -- while still paying off as much as you can each month, of course. Make an extra payment midway through the billing cycle so your reported outstanding balance appears lower. Ask lenders to reinstate higher limits if your payment credit agency Gainesville history has been solid -- but don't tap the extra credit just because it's there.

Be cautious with transfers. Transferring balances to a new credit card account to get a lower rate will ding your credit score by a few points -- although it won't take that long to recover.

But, say you move a $2,000 balance from a card with a $10,000 limit to one with a $4,000 limit; you've immediately gone from a credit agency Gainesville 20 percent utilization ratio to 50 credit agency Gainesville percent on the new card. Plus, if you then close the higher-rate card, credit agency Gainesville you'll only compound the problem by both lowering your available credit and erasing a longer-term account from your credit history. Mix it up. People who demonstrate managing several types of credit credit agency Gainesville earn higher scores, so if your credit agency Gainesville revolving (credit card) payments are under control and you don't have any outstanding installment loans (mortgage, car, student), consider taking out a small personal loan credit agency Gainesville and paying it off on schedule. credit check 3 Just make sure the lender will report it to all three bureaus. A few other credit score-improvement tips:

Make sure credit agency Gainesville that credit limits on individual cards reported to credit bureaus are accurate. Don't automatically close older, unused accounts; 15 percent of your score is credit agency Gainesville based on credit history. In fact, make occasional small charges on existing accounts (paying them off, of course) to make sure the lender doesn't close them out.

Each time you open a new account there's a slight impact on your score, so avoid doing so in the months before a major purchase like a home or car.