
To succeed financially, you must maintain good credit.
When you have excellent credit, you are more likely to qualify for low-interest loans, saving hundreds or even thousands of dollars over the long run.
As a consequence, poor credit health can hinder your ability to qualify for good credit cards, get the best mortgage rates, or get the financing for a car.
It can be hard to even know where to begin in the credit landscape since it can be confusing and complex.
Investing in understanding your credit score is the first step to achieving strong credit health.
You can unlock your full credit potential and achieve your financial goals by understanding your credit score and what actions you can take to improve it.
This guide will give you a simple look at how your credit is performing and how to start building your credit repair health to make your life better:
- Definition of Credit Scores
- Reports on creditworthiness
- The factors that affect your credit score
- Your credit report is affected by a variety of factors
Definition of Credit Scores
Many lenders use the credit score as a way to assess your credit health, as it is a three-digit metric that summarizes many key points of your credit report.
Scoring agencies use an algorithm to calculate credit scores based on data from your credit report which includes information like your history of loan payments and credit card debt.
Credit scores predict whether you will be able to pay your obligations on time or will go delinquent.
Many people think that all credit bureaus and lenders use the same credit score, but that’s not true.
Due to multiple credit bureaus, different scoring methodologies, as well as constant updating of your credit information, most people have multiple credit reports that are slightly different.
Score models abound, but FICO Score and VantageScore are perhaps the most well-known.
Reports on creditworthiness
Information and data collected by credit bureaus from lenders go into credit reports.
Several US credit bureaus produce consumer credit reports. However, most financial institutions and businesses use Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion to check consumers’ credit.
As you use credit, and you provide information to credit card companies, banks, mortgage companies, and other lenders. your credit report is continually being updated.
Credit reports contain three types of information:
- – Your credit history consists of your number of open, active, and closed accounts (credit cards, auto loans, mortgages, etc. ), the age of the accounts, the credit utilization rate, the account balances, and your payment history, including your late payment history.
- Credit Inquiries: when you apply for credit, a lender will pull your credit report and it will show as a “hard” or “voluntary” inquiry. Unlike “involuntary” or “soft” inquiries, this occurs when you check your rate online or when your credit report is pulled when you get a pre-approval offer by mail.
- You will only be able to see hard inquiries if they are visible to others, and they will appear on your credit report for two years if they are visible to others.
- A public record can include information on foreclosures, suits, garnishment, bankruptcies, or information about overdue debt collected by collection agencies.
You can also find general information about you in your credit report (your name, address, Social Security number, and birthdate). The following are not included:
- Salaries, titles, employment dates, and employment history (Choices that are not included in your credit report may be taken into account by lenders before making an approval decision.)
- Spending habits you follow every day
In addition to looking at your credit report, lenders consider several other factors before making a credit decision.
The factors that affect your credit score
1. Account History
As the major factor in calculating your credit score. Your payment history is the most important part because it indicates your reliability in keeping up with timely payments – an indication of whether you will repay your debts.
A couple of late payments can be extremely detrimental to your credit score.
The fact that you aren’t making payments after 30 or 60 days shouldn’t harm your credit score.
You can improve your credit score by paying your bills on time, every time.
To help you keep track of your bills and eliminate the chance of missing a payment accidentally. Consider setting up online alerts across your accounts or using automatic bill payments.
2. Utilization of credit cards
To avoid credit card debt, ideally, your credit utilization ratio should be less than 30%2.
In addition to lowering your credit score.
By dividing your total outstanding balances on all of your credit cards. By the total amount of credit, you have available. You will find out your utilization rate.