Monday, October 27, 2008

Is it possible to quickly ( 72 hrs ) Increase your Credit Score ?

By Trevor Weir

Apparently there is a way to increase your credit score and it is probably not what you think it is. When asked this question randomly at a college, most students reported that the way to increase you credit score was to pay off your bills every month and on time. Some home owners said that the way to do so was to pay your mortgage on time and try to remove bad references from your credit records.

So, the question is, Can the credit card score be improved and most people would answer simply pay your bills on time and there should be nothing to worry about. Everyone it seems has an opinion on this. Some said that constantly asking the credit agency to respond to specified issues in your report within a period of time specified by law could or might result in the credit agency making a mistake and the issue in question being cleared - largely based on a technicality. Enough people mentioned this tactic, so it appears that as unorthodox as this method may seem, there may be some validity in some jurisdictions.

The underlying thought process that most people have when confronted with this question is pay your bills on time and your credit rating will be great. But is this really true? We are going to call this myth number 1. So, let's look at myth number 1. Loan institutions love people who pay off their bills on time every month. Ok, so I see huge bank profit in that model, right? If this were truly the case, how would a loan institution make any money? ha ha Loan institutions love people who maintain a balance that they can get charged interest on. And that's the truth.

Ok, so what about Myth number two. "Loan institutions love people who borrow as much as possible." If this second one were true, I wouldn't be writing this article but simply running for the bank as fast as my little feet could carry me. Ok, seriously, if this were the case, people who couldn't repay loans would get massive loans and constantly end up in bankruptcy courts. So perhaps between myth number 1 and myth number 2 we haven't quite achieved a balance yet in terms of what banks don't like. We know what loan institutions don't like, but that doesn't entirely answer what they do like.

Could the truth be somewhere in between? Loan institutions love clients who pay something on their bills each month ( preferably just the interest and a little more - kind of like a show good faith on the balance... ) and whom appear to have the ongoing ability to keep their total loans significantly within the total allowed credit range - debt ratio. For example 20,000 in total credit available, 6,000 already used.

The keyword phrase "ongoing ability to pay " is why some older retired persons with otherwise good credit may sometimes have difficulty refinancing longer term loans. Existing verifiable income is one of the underlying basis for credit that requires repayment. I think pension checks are income but for some reason lenders don't rate those quite so highly.

So the key issue for those looking to increase their credit scores from perhaps a low 600 to a high 800 depends more on the factor of debt ratio.Primary amongst those additional factors is as mentioned, the DEBT RATIO. If you want to have a credit scrore above 800 then the credit agencies must think you have a very favorable debt ratio.

Chief amongst those other factors is the DEBT RATIO. If you want to have a credit scrore above 800 then you must have a bank likeable debt ratio.

Who then are the loan arrangers really searching for? That would be the gentle person with a credit to debt ratio which is not only low, meaning they have room to increase it, but someone who also has shown the long term ability to handle an ongoing balance. Come to the site and view the CreditScore Video then make a few quick changes to fix your score. Is 72 hours too long? - 15790

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