6) Check your credit card limits. Your score might be lower if your lender is reporting a lower limit than you actually have. Most credit card issuers will quickly update this information when you ask.

If your credit card company has a policy not to report consumers' limits as is the usual case with American Express and Capital One, the bureaus typically use your highest balance as a kind of proxy for your credit limit. 

Here's the problem: If you consistently charge the same amount each month, say $2,000 to $2,500, it may look to the credit scoring formula like you're regularly maxing out that card.

You could go on a spending spree to raise the limit, but a safer solution would  be to pay your balance down or off before your statement period closes. Check your last statement to see which day of the month that typically is, then go to the issuer's Web site about a week in advance of the statement closing date and pay off what you owe. It won't raise your reported limit, but it will widen the gap between that limit and your closing balance, and should raise your score. Refer back to #4 for more details.

 7) Ask for a little goodwill. If you've been a good customer, a lender may agree to simply erase one late payment from your credit history. You usually have to make the request in writing, but I have accomplished this with just a phone call. Your chances for a "goodwill adjustment" improve the better your record with the company and the better your credit in general. But it doesn't hurt to ask - thereby keeping your record in good standings.

A longer term solution for more troubled accounts is to ask that they be "re-aged." If the account is still open, the lender might erase previous delinquencies if you make a series of 12 or more on-time payments.  

8) Closing accounts won't help your score, and may hurt it.

If your goal is boosting your score, leave these alone. You want to show "depth of file" by keeping accounts for many years. However, once an account has been closed, though, it doesn't matter to the scoring formulas who did it, you or the lender. If you messed up the account, it will be obvious from the late payments and other derogatory information included in the file.

BONUS: Other actions to beware when you're trying to improve your score:

Asking a creditor to lower your credit limits. This will reduce that all-important gap between your balances and your available credit, which could hurt your score. If a lender asks you to close an account or get a limit lowered as a condition for getting a loan, you might have to do it -- but don't do so without being asked.

• Making a late payment. The irony here is that a late or missed payment will hurt a good score more than a bad one, dropping a 700-plus score by 100 points or more. If you've already got a string of negative items on your credit report, one more won't have a big impact, but it's still something you want to avoid if you're trying to improve your score.

• Consolidating your accounts. Applying for a new account can ding your score. So, too, can transferring balances from a high-limit card to a lower-limit one, or concentrating all or most of your credit-card balances onto a single card. Ironically, it's better to have smaller balances on (30% or less) a few cards than a big balance on one.

• Applying for new credit if you've already got plenty. On the other hand, applying for and getting an installment loan can help your score if you don't have any installment accounts, or you're trying to recover from a credit disaster like bankruptcy.

SMALL BUSINESS BONUS:
I am only aware of two credit cards that will not report to the credit reporting agencies at all. Small business owners may wish to open a business card with American Express or US Bank instead of becoming a corporation in order to separate business debt from personal debt. Meaning, your personal debt will generate your credit scores and the business debt will not be reported and included in the credit agency formula for scoring.

So, if you have poor or mediocre scores to begin with, these tips can be a boon to your credit scores. However, once you've hit the 700 mark, any tweaking you do will tend to have less of an impact, but each increase helps since mortgage lenders best interest rates require a 740 score or better.

And if your scores are in the "excellent" category, say 760 or above, you'll probably only be able to eke out a few extra points despite your best efforts. That's not a problem since you're already qualified for the best rates and terms.

Get the only truly free credit report from www.annualcreditreport.com. I suggest you get a report every four months, pulling from one of the three agencies at a time. This allows you to monitor your credit reports, monitoring is the best way to pro-active identity theft detection.


                   PLEASE SHARE THIS INFORMATION WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS! 
Their money depends on it too!
 Call Marcia Waldburger, your Minocqua Mortgage Broker for more direction to secure your financial future.