Easy Credit Help

5 Steps To A Higer FICO Score

If you need credit help with your FICO score, you may think you cannot get new credit.  That just isn't so.  Loan officers and credit card providers each have different standards when evaluating an application for credit. Lenders who offer the best interest rates tend to be very conservative and look at an applicants total credit history.  Often times they require a FICO score of 725 or better.

Other lenders may place more importance on your recent history looking for a pattern of regular payments and the amount of credit already being used by the applicant.  There may also be outside influences with these lenders as well.  The automotive industry, mortgage bankers and others have a strong motivation to get out from under the liability of excess inventory and may be more willing to make a deal on a one off basis.

Regardless of your credit score, there are sources of credit that you can tap into.  It is a wise idea however, to do what you can to clean up your credit report prior to seeking a loan for a big ticket item.  You can do this yourself.   There's need to hire a service.  Provide your own credit help by:

Get current information on your credit report.  The Fair Credit Reporting Act allows each consumer to get a free report from each of the three major reporting agencies every 12 months.  Your first step is to order these reports.  You can order from all three by going to annualcreditreport.com.

Review your report and pay attention to any negative items.  Ask three questions for each item.  Is it mine?  If you feel an item does not belong to you, the law allows you to send a verification letter to the agency requesting that it be removed.  All requests must be answered within 30 days.  Is it correct?  If you think the information is not correct, send your proof and ask for validation.  Is it over 7 years old?  By law items, other than a bankruptcy, must be removed seven years after the date of the last transaction.  If you have an item past that, tell the agency to remove it.

Within 30 days of submitting your disputes to the credit agency, you should get their response.  Now would be a good time to get a second copy of your report to make sure the items have been taken care of.  If they havent, contact the agency again.  Now is also a good time to get your FICO score.  Unfortunately, there is no free source for this.  Go to MyFico.com to get your report.

Now that you have your current report and your FICO score, you know what the lender will see when he pulls up your report.  Before applying for that big ticket item, call the dealer or the store or the bank and ask for the credit manager.  Ask them what their lending criteria are and tell them your FICO score.  If you are within their acceptable range, you may want to shop it around to their competitors.  If you are not in their range, ask why so you know what to work on.

If your credit report still needs help and you have some cash available, here's a tip to get an immdiate positive item posted.

Go to your bank and speak to a loan officer and explain you are trying to improve your FICO score.

Explain to the loan officer that you would like a six month personal loan for $1000 and you are willing to secure it by purchasing a $1000 six month Certificate of Deposit.  This is a win win for the bank and you.  Use the $1000 from the loan to pay back the loan.  All this is going to cost you is the interest on the loan and even part of that will be offset by the interest you earn on the CD.

Using this strategy gets you an immediate positive item posted, the loan.  Use the proceeds from the loan to pay it back.  Six months later you have an improved payment history and most likely a higher FICO score.  Now may be the time to go for that original loan you were looking for.

For a step by step guide on how to dispute an item on your credit report click here