Lots of folks are under the impression that your credit score only matters if you are making a large purchase, such as a car or a home. A credit score, which can also be referred to as a FICO score, is used in many everyday life situations. If you’re leasing a home, your landlord will probably check to see if you have good credit. It is not uncommon for those with bad credit to have been evicted from a past residence. Those people will have a tougher time finding a landlord who will approve them.

You may also find that if you have good credit, you have an easier time getting your utilities hooked up. Those with bad credit may find they need to pay a higher deposit. One never knows when they will need to relocate, as natural disasters and fires could happen at any given time.

Should you possess a great FICO score, you’ll find that you have lower interest rates on loans and charge cards. This will allow you to have lower payments, which means you will most likely be able to pay off the loan or charge card faster.

To go along with advances and charge cards, if you possess a good credit score, odds are you will be approved more. Many who have bad scores are turned down for auto loans, home mortgages, HELOCs, charge cards, and other loans. Folks with greater credit scores will possess more possibilities to pick which loan or card is right for them.

Insurance is another thing that can look at your credit score. If you desire to look for the least expensive rates, maintaining great credit can aid you. Many folks who have low credit scores are penalized by auto insurance companies, thus giving them higher premiums.

Another advantage of having a higher FICO score is that you will have an easier time obtaining a cellphone contract. Many are not aware that a bad credit score may mean a cellular service turning them away. Or they could charge you more for your contract until you have established good credit with them.

Many wonder what a decent credit score is. A FICO score of 670-739 is deemed good, while a score of 740-799 is very good. Anything 800 and over is exceptional.

You are probably wondering how a credit score is calculated. There are different elements that calculate what your score is. These things include how old the account is, how much is owed on the account, what your available credit is, and if payments were made on time.

Should you find that your credit score is less than you desire, do not fret. You can work on obtaining a higher score by paying your bills on time. If you have any negative marks on your credit report, know that over time, they will fall off. You will also want to keep your credit utilization ratio low. It is ideal to have this be 30% or less.

If you want to fix your credit score and are in the Clearwater area, contact Super Credit Repair. They can help you identify areas that need improvement to obtain a good credit score.

Picture Credit: Freepik

The post The Advantages Of Obtaining A Good Credit Score appeared first on supercreditrepair.

Are you wondering how long the ‘late payment’ red mark will reflect on your credit report or how it can influence your credit score? Continue reading to find out answers to both your queries.

When is Your Payment Considered Late?
You’ll be regarded as a defaulter even if you pay just one minute after the due date and time. For instance, if your due date (of payment) is on the 5th of each month, you should pay latest by midnight on the 5th day of every month. Your creditor may allow you to clear payment within the grace period, which kicks in immediately after the deadline expires.

Many creditors or lenders offer this privilege (grace period) as a last resort to enable borrowers to avoid paying late fines.

How Long Do Late Payments Stay on Your Credit Report?
The blot of late payments generally remains on your credit for precisely seven years if it is not a mistake. Ensure you tender a dispute application if you spot an error in your credit report. The exact period the late payment blotch stays on a credit report could, by and large, vary from one person to another.

Go through the FICO (Fair Isaac Corporation) report to determine how much time it’ll take for your credit score to recover from late payments.

In What Way Late Payments Affect Credit Score?
Remember that late payment does not reflect on a credit report until it is 30 days overdue. Once outstanding late payment crosses the 30 days, your credit report is dropped into one of the following buckets: –

• 30-days behind schedule
• 60-days behind schedule
• 90-days behind schedule
• 120-days behind schedule
• 150-days
• Written off as a loss once late payment goes beyond the 150 days

The above shows that the longer you delay payment, the greater the damage to your credit score.

How to Mitigate the Adverse Effect of Late Payments?
As per a 2020 Experian report, nearly 1.5% of all borrowers have defaulted on their due payment by 30-180 days. Get in touch with your creditor to determine if their institution is willing to consider waiving the late penalty. The creditor may not insist on the late fine provided you’ve paid your previous EMI on time.

Your sole aim would be to clear (your dues) the maximum amount possible at the earliest as far as you’re concerned.

Avoiding Late Payments
Signing up for automated payments is best to avoid defaulting on your monthly EMIs. However, doing so could risk default, especially if you receive your salary well past the due date or don’t budget routinely. You can write down the due dates in a diary or mark the dates on an almanac if registering for autopay doesn’t work.

Everything You Need to Know About Credit Repair
You resort to credit repairing, especially when your credit report is incomplete or contains erroneous data or information. Preparing a credit report takes time, so it follows that it is also time-consuming to fix or correct a faulty credit report. To improve your flawed credit report, you first have to seek a credit report from Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion.

Based on the data contained in your credit report, this information may work in your favor or work against you. You’ve to do away with the negative aspects of the credit report, whereas positive items require monitoring. However, you should refrain from trying to modify or alter the information except if the data is inaccurate.

If you face issues with your credit score or find it tough to improve it, consult an expert credit repair agency. Super Credit Repair is one such organization with a team of experts who have been helping people manage their finances and improve credit scores in Pinellas County, FL. The company would evaluate your situation and provide the best ways to improve your credit scores.

Picture Credit: Freepik

The post How Late Payments Influence Credit Score And Credit Repair? appeared first on supercreditrepair.

Effect of closed accounts on your credit score

The FICO credit score is decided by several factors such as your payment history, the debt you owe, and the average credit history length. There are other factors affecting the credit score as well such as credit mix and new credit. The credit bureaus compile all this info within the credit report. It is used to decide where the credit score lies. However, there are a couple of areas where the closed accounts can impact the credit score and they are the amounts you owe and the length of your credit history. Let’s take a look at how.

Some closed accounts can raise your credit utilization rates: If you close one of your credit card accounts, you will be reducing the amount of credit available. This will increase the credit utilization rate and can harm the credit score. Keep in mind that installment loans such as personal loans do not impact credit utilization. Therefore, closed personal loan accounts do not impact the rate of credit utilization.

Account closure means a decrease in the average length of credit history: Length of credit history is partially decided by the average age of all the accounts together. So, removing an account will decrease the average length of the credit history. It is going to affect the credit score negatively.

When to remove a closed account from the credit report?

Is it possible to remove the closed accounts from the credit report? For the most part, it is a good idea to remove closed accounts from the credit report when some negative info is reported. It is true especially when the negative details are incorrect. Luckily there are some alternatives available when you are looking to get certain info removed from the credit score or you are trying to get this info removed. Here is how.

1. Dispute the inaccuracies formally: According to CFPB it is possible to dispute the inaccurate info on the credit reports. You need to do it with the credit bureau and the company that provided the info.
2. Just politely ask for the info to be removed: When you do not have any incorrect info to dispute and yet you wish to remove a closed account, you can send a goodwill letter to the credit bureaus.
3. Wait for the negative info to disappear: Keep in mind that the closed account info on the credit report will eventually disappear. This negative info is removed after every seven years. The info about the closed account in good stead gets removed after ten years. In case you have tried to dispute the negative info without any success, sometimes you may have to wait till the issue corrects itself.

Do not bother sweating the small stuff as far as credit score is concerned

Keep in mind that the credit bureaus take into consideration your overall situation while deciding the credit score. They will not just take into consideration the closed accounts on your report. There are other more significant factors in regards to the FICO credit score such as your payment history and the debt you owe. So, you need to concentrate more on the effort to pay the bills on time and keep low credit utilization. Another way of improving the credit score is by not opening or closing too many accounts.

Good credit does not happen overnight. It is built slowly over the years and you can get the best results by concentrating on areas where you can deliver more impact. If you live in Pinellas County, FL area and are looking for professional help with credit score repair, connect with Super Credit Repair. Remember, older accounts on the credit report might be inconsequential however, how you take care of the credit will have an effect on your credit score for many years.

Picture Credit: Pexels

The post Can I Remove Closed Accounts From My Credit Report? appeared first on supercreditrepair.

Why is good credit important?

When you apply for a new credit card, your bank or lender will most likely check your credit score. If you have a good credit score, you may qualify for a lower interest rate, compared to someone who has a bad credit score. This can make a big difference in repayment costs over the length of the loan. For example, if you have a good credit score, you may qualify for a 12% yearly interest rate, while if you had a bad credit score, then you may only qualify for the 24% interest rate credit card. Mortgages and auto loans also factor in credit scores when it comes to giving you good or bad loan terms. Something that you may not have known is that even utility companies may check your credit score before giving you service. Another thing that you should keep in mind, is that landlords and employers may check your credit score before allowing you to lease their house or work at their company. This is why it is important to try and maintain a great credit score throughout your life.

What is a good and bad credit score?

One of the most popular methods that banks use to check a person’s credit score is searching up their FICO score. The FICO credit score is one of the most accurate representations of a person’s credit. Some factors that affect the FICO score are length of credit history, payment history, and total amount of debt. The lowest credit score a person can have is 300, while the highest is 850. You can use this information as an approximate reference, 300-580 is a poor credit score, 580-670 is fair, 670-740 is good, 740-800 is very good, and 800-850 is exceptional. This is a good estimation on where you might be in terms of your credit score rating.

What can I do to improve my credit score?

One of the biggest factors when it comes to improving your credit score is paying your bills on time and in full each month. If you have a credit card bill due on the 8th of the month, make sure that bill is paid on time consistently. Something that you can do is set up auto bill payments, this can help you make your payments on time each month just in case you forget to pay it. Another important factor when it comes to improving your credit score is to be aware of your current revolving utilization percentage. Revolving utilization has to do with the amount of credit you are given, compared to the amount that you actually use. For example, if you have a $1,000 credit card but only use $100, your revolving utilization percentage will be 10%. Try and keep your revolving utilization percentage under 30% if possible. If your revolving utilization percentage gets too high it may hurt your credit score, because you will be seen as a high risk borrower. The higher your debt is, the higher chance that you will default on your loan. One more thing you should keep in mind is the length of credit history can also affect your credit score. If you are a young person with a low credit score, try not to feel bad. With consistent on time payments your credit score will slowly begin to increase over time.

What are some things that may hurt my credit score?

Your credit score is very important and should not be taken lightly. One thing that can dramatically hurt your credit score is co-signing a credit card for a family member or friend. If this person pays on time then there should be no problem. The problems start to begin when the person you cosigned for starts paying their bills late, or stops paying their bills altogether. This is a situation that happens all the time, and you should be careful getting yourself into a bad dilemma. Think carefully before you decide to cosign a credit card for anyone, if they don’t pay, then it will be your credit score that will suffer. Another thing that may hurt your credit score is applying for too many credit cards in a short amount of time. Each time you apply for a credit card, the lender has to “pull” your credit, which may lead to a lower credit score in the short term. Over time if you don’t apply for too many credit cards, your credit score will slowly increase again. Another thing that many people don’t know is that there are sometimes mistakes on your credit report. It is important to double check your credit report every few months or so to verify the report is correct. Sometimes there may be mistakes that pop up on your credit report and these mistakes must be fixed as soon as possible. Don’t ignore these mistakes because they can really hurt your overall credit score.

Picture Credit: Freepik

The post What Is A Good Credit Score? appeared first on supercreditrepair.

Basics of a FICO score

You may consider the FICO score to be the summary of a credit report. It will measure how long you had credit, how much credit you possess, and what is the available credit limit. It will also consider whether you are paying the repayment on time. The FICO score allows lenders to make faster and smarter decisions about who to loan the money to. It is also helpful for people to get quick and fair access to credit when it is needed. As the FICO scores are calculated depending on the credit info, it is in your hands to influence your score if you are paying the bills on time. It will also help if you are not carrying a large amount of debt and you are making intelligent credit choices.

The arrival of the FICO score

FICO or Fair Isaac Corporation introduced the FICO score almost thirty years ago for providing an industry-standard to score the trustworthiness of a borrower. The score is fair to both consumers and lenders. There were several different scores in existence before the arrival of a FICO score and all of them had different ways of calculating credibility. Some of them even considered political affiliation and gender.

Significance of FICO scores

There are millions of people benefitting from the FICO scores. It allows them to gain access to a credit they require for doing things such as getting an education, covering medical expenses, and buying their first homes. Some of the utility and insurance companies will also consider the FICO score while setting up their terms of service. The fact remains that having a good FICO score can save thousands of dollars in fees and interest. This is because most lenders will extend a lower interest rate when you appear to be a lesser risk to them.

Overall, the FICO scores are fast, consistent, predictive, and fair scores that help in keeping the cost of credit lower for the whole population. If the credit is more accessible, more lenders can lend the money and they are more efficient in their procedures. All this results in driving down the costs and passing on the savings to the borrowers.

Difference between other credit scores and a FICO score

Fair Isaac Corporation is only responsible for creating the FICO scores. These FICO scores are utilized by more than 90% of the top lenders when they are making their lending decisions. The reason? This is because FICO scores are industry standards while making fair and accurate decisions related to creditworthiness. FICO scores help thousands of people in getting the credit they require for new cars, homes, or other special buying. You might have seen advertisements for some other kinds of credit scores. You may have even bought some of them in the past. But these credit scores evaluate your score differently from the FICO score. Therefore, as the other scores may appear similar to the FICO scores they are not.

Different lenders decide what a good FICO score is for themselves. They also use this FICO score differently together with their loan approval process. Generally speaking, most lenders find a FICO score above 670 to be having good creditworthiness. Usually, the higher you score, the lesser is the risk involved and there are more chances of creditors extending a loan to you. The general score ranges established by various creditors allow them to make their lending decisions. They also act as targets for you to achieve. If you live in Clearwater, FL, or Pinellas County, and you are looking for in-depth information about FICO and your credit scores, get in touch with Super Credit Repair for an expert opinion.

Picture Credit: Freepik

The post The Significance Of A FICO Score appeared first on supercreditrepair.

According to Wikipedia:

A credit score is a numerical expression, based on a level
analysis of a person’s files, to represent the creditworthiness
of an individual. A credit score is primarily based on a credit
report with information typically sourced from credit bureaus …
(all emphasis original)

Credit scores are widely used by lenders (banks, credit card companies, major retailers, etc.) to:

• Evaluate the potential risk posed by lending money to consumers
• Mitigate losses due to bad debt
• To determine who qualifies for a loan, at what interest rate, and what credit limits
• To determine which customers are likely to return the highest revenue
• To use the Credit Scoring system as an implementation of a trusted system

As regards consumer credit in general, the credit score is highly important – a “big deal”, if you will.

A person’s credit score can mean the difference between being denied or approved for credit, and a low or high rate of interest. A decent credit score can be a deciding factor as to whether or not a person is offered a lease… or a car loan.

A credit score is a three-digit number (from 300 to 850) that is generated by a mathematical algorithm (al-go-rithm noun: a procedure for solving a mathematical problem in a finite number of steps that frequently involves the repetition of an operation… Merriam-Webster).

According to the website Bankrate.com, the credit score “…is designed to predict risk, specifically, the likelihood that a debtor will become seriously delinquent on credit obligations in the 24-months after scoring.”

The number one credit-scoring model in the United States is the FICO credit score that was developed and implemented by the Fair Isaac and Company firm. Information posted on FICO.com claims that “90% of all financial institutions in the United States use FICO scores in their decision-making process.”

Typically, consumers have three credit scores, one each for the three major credit reporting bureaus in the United States. Those are: Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. Since 2009, TransUnion and Equifax have only used FICO scoring – Experian ended its agreement with Fair Isaac and Company in that year.

Credit scores are made up of data taken from credit reports that are filtered in five major categories, as follows:

• Payment history – payment history on consumer credit accounts, including delinquencies and public records >Percentage of Total Score: thirty-five percent

• Amounts owed – amounts owed on consumer credit accounts (with total amount of “available credit” being used on “revolving accounts” being weighted heavily)>Percentage of Total Score: thirty percent

• Length of credit history – period of time since account opened & length of time since last account activity >Percentage of Total Score: fifteen percent

• Types of credit used – mix of accounts a consumer has (i.e. revolving, installment, etc.) >Percentage of Total Score: ten percent

• New credit – a consumer’s “pursuit of new credit” (including credit inquiries by potential lenders and newly opened accounts) >Percentage of Total Score: ten percent

A credit score is NOT affected by personal or demographic information such as age, race, marital status, income, or employment.

Federal law dictates that consumers have the right to obtain a free credit report every year from each of the three major reporting agencies noted above. The report is free – a consumer does not have the corresponding right to a free credit score. Some websites have free FICO-score “estimators”, but to get a free FICO score, the consumer must either purchase it or obtain it when approved for credit of some sort.

Picture Credit: Pixabay

The post CREDIT SCORE appeared first on supercreditrepair.