by Michelle Black, CreditWriter.com
Skeptical about making New Year’s resolutions? If you are it is understandable. People are notorious for setting big goals at the beginning of a new year and failing to follow through with their plans. However, even if you have tried and failed before, the new year can still mark a perfect starting point for you to finally begin your journey toward better credit.
You should not view the process of achieving better credit as a race or, if you do, you should at least consider it to be a marathon. Good credit simply will not happen overnight. There are 2 essential elements which you must possess if you ever truly wish to improve your credit: a solid plan and consistency.
The 5 steps below can go a long way toward helping you to build your “better credit” plan. You can even hire a professional to help guide you through the credit restoration process. However, the consistency piece of the puzzle is going to be 100% up to you and you alone. If you want to truly succeed in the task of improving your credit then you have to determine that this is going to be the year you stop making excuses.
Before you begin building a plan to improve your credit, it is important to understand exactly where your credit stands right now. There is only one way to gain this understanding and that is by taking a long, hard look at all 3 of your credit reports from Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. You can access your 3 credit reports free of charge each year via the website AnnualCreditReport.com.
Once you have your credit reports you should comb through them line by line for errors (on your own or with a credit repair professional). Errors on credit reports may occur more commonly than you realize. In fact, in 2013 the FTC released a study which estimated there to be over 40 million mistakes present on the credit reports of US consumers.
Credit reporting errors matter because they have the potential to damage your credit scores – sometimes significantly so. Even credit errors which you may perceive to be minor could potentially drive your credit scores downward. Thankfully, if credit reporting errors do arise you have the right to dispute these errors with the credit reporting agencies and with your creditors. These disputes can be handled on your own or by hiring a reputable professional to help you.
It is important to understand that the purpose of most credit scores is to show your future and even current lenders the likelihood of whether or not you will make late payments. In general, most lenders will not want to do business with you at all if your credit shows a pattern of late payment history. FICO scores specifically are built with the stated design objective of predicting the likelihood of a consumer becoming making a late payment on ANY credit obligation within the next 24 months.
Remember the statement above about how it is time to stop making excuses? If you do not stop justifying late payments to yourself now then you will never be able to achieve your goal of earning good credit.
While credit cards themselves are not inherently evil, the truth is that carrying credit card debt is always a bad idea. When you develop the habit of charging more on your credit cards than you can afford to pay off in a given month you are setting yourself up for financial problems and you are probably causing damage to your credit scores. Most people do not realize that even if you pay your credit card balances on time every single month the mere fact that you are revolving a balance could have a negative impact upon your credit scores.
Nearly 1/3 of your FICO scores (30% to be exact) are based upon the “Amounts Owed” category of your credit reports. The credit scores calculated from this credit report category are primarily based upon the relationship between your credit card balances and your credit card limits – aka your revolving utilization ratio. The good news is that as your credit card balances are paid down your credit scores will generally increase. As a result, paying down your credit card balances is one of the most effective and actionable ways to potentially improve your credit scores.
You have the right to work on your credit alone, but it is also your right to seek professional assistance. Yes, hiring a pro is going to require an investment on your part, but it could be well worth your time and money to have an expert advising you and working on your behalf. Many people are ultimately much happier with their results and less stressed out by the credit repair process when they take the step to hire a professional.
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A large percentage of credit problems stem from the same place – overspending. When you overextend yourself financially and begin to revolve outstanding credit card debt from month to month you are setting yourself up for a financial disaster down the road. It is no secret that credit card debt can lead to lower credit scores and a lot of money wasted through interest fees.
Many overspending problems develop in the first place due to a failure to plan – that is to say a failure to budget. You have probably heard the following saying: “Failure to plan equals planning to fail.” The saying is 100% accurate. In order to truly succeed in breaking the habit of overspending you need to create and follow a written budget.
If you find yourself cringing at the thought of writing and following a budget remember the following. Even though budgetting may not sound like at lot of fun to you, the negative repercussions that you can create for yourself through overspending are a much more uncomfortable experience.
The Value of the Resolution
If you are making resolutions about your finances and credit this year then a great place to begin is resolving not to let your fear of failure hold you back. Take a deep breath and set a big goal. In reality you might fall short of your goal to improve your credit by 100 points over the next 12 months. However, even if you improved your credit by just 10% it could potentially make a very positive, very tangible difference in your life.