How to improve your credit score (Part 2 of 5) by Robert H

Once you have your report accurate, then it is time to start working on what you can do to improve your credit score. Think of today as the first day of your "new" credit history. Start today by making sure you are doing everything you can to help your credit score. Make every payment on time and in full. This will help you because if you start today, then you basically won't have any negative information on your report after seven years if you can't fix anything. Only a bankruptcy can be reported longer than seven years so you should know that even if you can't change or fix anything, then seven years from today there could be no more negative reporting information.

Does that mean you will have a credit score above 700? No, because your credit score is based on many factors. The type of loan, length of loan and high balance will all have a factor in your credit score.

But here is the next part you can work on today to help your credit score.

Late payments

If you have late payments being reported to your credit report, then you should work to get them reduced or removed from your report. The older the information the easier it is to get removed from your report.

Talk with your creditor first, by talking with the creditor regarding late payment history that is old, you may just get them to remove that information from your report. Many times they will remove the information and ask that you dispute the information with the credit bureau. Then the creditor will update your information and hopefully take away your late payment history. This will help your credit score.

Now if you have late payment history and you talk with the creditor but they won't just remove it, ask them if they will re-age the account. If they receive payments on time, they might be willing to remove your late payment history. But it is important that you make sure that no matter what that those payments are made on time. If the creditor agrees to re-age your account (and they may only be willing to do it once) take care to make sure that you follow their instructions.

Some credit bureaus report for up to 48 months. This is what you should discuss with your creditor as if your late payment history is recent it will hurt your credit score more. Late payments over 1 year old are causing less damage than one payment that is showing late within 6 months.

So try to get your late payment history removed or reduced. Don't pay anything late as it really does hurt your score. Then work with your creditors to try and get your information updated so that you don't have any late payments.

Next - Collection Accounts

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