Tuesday, October 23, 2012

4 Common Credit Mistakes


Your Daily Real Estate Blog

From

Supreme Manor Real Estate Services

 

4 Common Credit Mistakes

Whether you are looking to buy or refinance a home you just looking for financial peace of mind, having good credit is important. Here are some actions to beware when you're trying to improve your scores.

 
l  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 scores. 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.

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

 
l  Consolidating your accounts. 
Applying for a new account can ding your scores. 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. In general, it's better to have smaller balances on a few cards than a big balance on one.  You should make sure balances on all cards are below 35% of your limit for that card.
 

l  Applying for new credit if you already have plenty. 
You may appear to be a bigger risk to a creditor if you have too much credit.  Manage your credit limits wisely. On the other hand, applying for and getting an installment loan can help your scores if you don't have any installment accounts or you're trying to recover from a credit disaster such as bankruptcy.  Sometimes, when you are trying to improve your credit score a secured credit card can help.


I hope this information is useful.

Should you need assistance with any of your real estate needs, please contact Supreme Manor Real Estate Services 773-881-9224.  Feel free to visit us on our website or any of our social media sites.

Have a Supreme Day!

Sheila M. Wilkinson-Sanders

Managing Broker/Owner - CPA, GRI, CNC

Supreme Manor Real Estate Services

1840 West 95th Street

Chicago, IL 60643

(773) 785-0127 Direct

(773) 797-9640 (fax)


 

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