Come on, budgets are sexy, well maybe not entirely but they can save you money. In 2018 you should forget about wasting money at the gym, only to stop going in a few months, and really focus on your finances. By improving your credit score, you can take advantage of the best interest rates on the market and free up extra money each month. To take that one step further you can use your extra money to create a budget to save even further, so why not kick it off with boosting your credit score.
Request a Copy of Your Credit Report
You may think you have perfect credit until you go apply for a mortgage to find out that you are getting a high interest rate, or turned down altogether. By reviewing a free copy of your credit report that you can request from any of the three credit bureaus you can review for accuracies to see if all accounts are up to date, just keep in mind that balances may take a month or two to catch up, but at least you can make sure the open accounts are legit. Your credit score will not be included, but if you take a look at the online statement for your credit card you can see your score on there, and monitor going forward to make sure it’s trending in the right direction.
Keep Up the Payments on Time
A large piece of your credit score is based on your payment history, so it’s important to make sure your payments are made on time, if not scheduled to be paid early. Sure, missing a day will not affect your credit score, but you could get hit with a late fee or interest rate boost. Once late payment hits thirty days late, it will then be a blemish on your credit report, taking up to seven years to finally come off.
Get Out of Debt
Just as important as your payment history is the amount of overall debt you have compared to your available credit, so as you charge more and approach your limit is when your score will be affected greatly. Even when you finally are able to get out of debt, you may think about closing the account so you don’t charge back up, but actually if you cut up the card and keep the account open, that can actually help your score by keeping that available credit and decreasing your utilization.
Limit the Applications
Each time you apply for credit and your report is pulled by a lender your score will decrease by a few points. Sure, that doesn’t sound horrible, but too many inquiries could make or break you getting a great interest rate, not to mention they could stay on your report for a couple years, even if you decide not to proceed with the application, making it even more important to make sure that you are going to proceed with the application if you are having your credit ran, provided the terms are good, of course.