I decided to do some reading - really it is research on the best ways to raise my credit score. What I found is that most financial experts recommend paying off the high balance high interest items first. I don't agree with that for myself personally. I want to see the positive as quickly as possible. So I will continue to pay off my lowest account first. Which will raise the score slowly but effectively. See I feel as long as I make an extra $1-$5 payment on the minimum balance I am adding a little more to the interest charges on those high balance/high interest cards. The sooner I pay off my low balance cards; the quicker I have an extra $25 to $45 dollars to use for the next card. It will slowly add up to where eventually I can keep a little back for the emergency fund and still be able to pay off a card a month for about 10 months. At that point I will be at the higher balance cards which will take a little while longer to pay off. I will be able to knock them down rather quickly when I am able to pay $500-$600 a month on them though.
My gas cards will never officially paid off as I use them when I go to Indianapolis once a month right now. I am setting back money each week so I can avoid using them for a while though. I currently have two gas cards which are strictly for use at the gas station.
I just found out that two of the cards are closed and I wasn't aware of that. So I moved those to the end of the list as paying them off right now wouldn't do me much good for the credit score. They aren't a lot but my plan is to pay them off when I get tax refunds. I am still waiting on 2017 tax refund so I can pay them off with that one - which I am told I should receive in January.
Experian has some good ideas to look at and go over. The Lenders Network has some amazing advice in their article. The hottest tip would be "Pay to Delete", you call the collection account company and discuss paying the bill in full as long as they agree in writing to delete the account from the credit report. I highly recommend reading the advice from The Lenders Network. Something else I found in my reading was that after an item is paid off for at least 6 months you can file a dispute to have it removed. So if you have a medical bill that you paid in full and it has been six months - file a dispute to say it is paid in full. The company will either respond or they won't at which time it should fall off and that will raise your score a few points. Do this with each one account that is closed or in collections as you pay them off - do not do this on active credit cards. The best advice I found was "Be Patient". Getting a good credit score raised from a bad one doesn't happen over night. This is also the advice for all good things in life - Be Patient.
Some good advice about credit cards - avoid the ones with annual or monthly usage fees. They over charge and you end up paying more than you desire to in the end. Who really remembers when they opened each credit card? So you forget the annual fee is coming and next thing you know your minimum payment is over $100 that month, now you have to scramble to pay off the money you weren't prepared to spend. If you have a credit card with an annual fee already - my advice is keep that card empty until the annual fee comes around so that you can pay that off when it comes and you won't be so frantic when the bill comes out.
My gas cards will never officially paid off as I use them when I go to Indianapolis once a month right now. I am setting back money each week so I can avoid using them for a while though. I currently have two gas cards which are strictly for use at the gas station.
I just found out that two of the cards are closed and I wasn't aware of that. So I moved those to the end of the list as paying them off right now wouldn't do me much good for the credit score. They aren't a lot but my plan is to pay them off when I get tax refunds. I am still waiting on 2017 tax refund so I can pay them off with that one - which I am told I should receive in January.
Experian has some good ideas to look at and go over. The Lenders Network has some amazing advice in their article. The hottest tip would be "Pay to Delete", you call the collection account company and discuss paying the bill in full as long as they agree in writing to delete the account from the credit report. I highly recommend reading the advice from The Lenders Network. Something else I found in my reading was that after an item is paid off for at least 6 months you can file a dispute to have it removed. So if you have a medical bill that you paid in full and it has been six months - file a dispute to say it is paid in full. The company will either respond or they won't at which time it should fall off and that will raise your score a few points. Do this with each one account that is closed or in collections as you pay them off - do not do this on active credit cards. The best advice I found was "Be Patient". Getting a good credit score raised from a bad one doesn't happen over night. This is also the advice for all good things in life - Be Patient.
Some good advice about credit cards - avoid the ones with annual or monthly usage fees. They over charge and you end up paying more than you desire to in the end. Who really remembers when they opened each credit card? So you forget the annual fee is coming and next thing you know your minimum payment is over $100 that month, now you have to scramble to pay off the money you weren't prepared to spend. If you have a credit card with an annual fee already - my advice is keep that card empty until the annual fee comes around so that you can pay that off when it comes and you won't be so frantic when the bill comes out.
Comments
Post a Comment