Learn To Improve Your Credit Rating

What does your credit rating mean to you?  Well, obviously it will be the deciding factor on whether you get your dream home.  Less important, it will effect the interest rate you get on your car.  A low rating can keep you from getting certain jobs because it shows you are a security risk.  It can even prevent you from certain government licenses.  All this from not paying your Macy's bill?  It could because that is where the information on nonpayment will go.  More specifically it will go to Equifax, Experian, and/or TransUnion.  They are the ones that generate your credit report so they are where you need to start looking to improve your credit score.

Because these reports are about you the federal government requires them to provide you one free copy of each if you ask.  Very few people think to ask but a lot of people wish they had when they are required to put down a huge deposit down for their cell phone.  Once you get your copies it will be time to throughly examine them.  This is what to look for.

There is one thing that you can look for right off the bat and can make a big difference.  That is unpaid, forgotten debt.  Usually they are small little amounts that fell between the cracks a few years ago and were never thought of again, at least by you.  Paying these off is a good start to cleaning up your credit report.  If you had paid the debt and it was still on there you have recourse.  You can prove you did pay it and have it removed.  If you cannot, you can still have a note added that you dispute it and why. 

The other thing you should be looking for is identity theft, a growing problem with computers.  This too is fixable but it does take a while and is time consuming so it is best to catch it early.  Fixing identity theft, however, is beyond the scope here but the information is available.

Now that you know what to be looking for to keep your credit record clean you should check it at least once a year or more if you suspect there is a problem.  The faster you catch the problem the faster it can be resolved and the less damage it can do.