What can you do now to change the outlook of your credit? Deal with the payment history stuff, which is 35% and the pay in the deal with the utilization stuff, which is 30% of the FICO credit scoring model.
1. If you have been paying late, (over 30 days) start paying on time.
That’s the number one way you can recover your credit scores. Why? Because your payment history is 35% of the FICO credit scoring model. This means that if you have a negative item that hits your payment history – like a late payment – it’s going to be catastrophic when it comes to your scores.
This is why the first thing you should do is to start paying your bills on time. Also, what’s in the algorithm that creates your credit scores, is a mechanism of forgiveness. With each payment you make on time every month, you become less and less of a risk. This way, your scores are able to go up. The moment you start to pay on time, you’ll start to create good credit again.
2. Watch your credit utilization
If you have credit cards and your credit limit is $1000, and you have $999 balance, that is called a maxed out card. It’s bad for your credit, and you should never go over the credit limit.
But what if you had to? It’s OK. Forgive yourself and move forward. Next thing to do is to start knocking that down as fast as you can. Credit utilization is the ratio of your credit card balances to credit limits. The ideal is to lower your balances so you aren’t using more than 30% of the available credit you have.
So your options are:
- Knock the balances down (Pay your debts)
- Get more credit (The easiest and fastest solution)
There are institutions that will give you credit, even with bad credit scores. We have a list of these institutions, including a really good one that can give you up to $5000 in credit. This will show up on all three credit reports and will change your utilization.
Not everyone can afford to do credit repair or has the time to do credit repair themselves. With this two tips, your scores can shoot to the moon because you have set a really sweet foundation.