Some Tips on Credit Card Applications and Boosting Your Credit Score

Here’s something you already know: Having a high credit score means better financial options for you. You’ll get excellent credit card offers, the best credit cards, and the lowest interest credit cards. But how can you improve your credit score if it’s not already excellent? There are no quick fixes, but there are many things you can do gradually, over time, to make your credit score more attractive when you fill out those credit card applications.

• Pay attention to your credit report. Lots of inquiries into your credit can lower your score, but inquiries YOU make into your own report don’t count against you. Examine it carefully every six months or so, looking for mistakes and outdated information. If there are errors, you are entitled to insist that they be rectified.
• What’s your score? Find out! You should know your credit score. The three credit-reporting bureaus, Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax, all determine credit scores, which may be slightly different from each other. Know what they are, or at least the ballpark range.
• Keep your accounts to a minimum. Avoid applying for a credit card unless you actually need it. Don’t open new accounts unless they’re really for the very best credit cards. Even if you keep the balances to zero, simply having the accounts open can be bad for your credit score, as it represents additional debts you could amass very quickly.
• Minimize your balances as much as possible. Your score goes down as the amount of debt you owe starts to approach your maximum available credit. High balances make you a risk to potential creditors, as they figure you are more likely to miss a payment. Therefore, you should do what you can to keep your balances low at all times, not just when applying for a credit card.
• Be punctual. Late payments are a sure way to sink your credit score. If you’re more than 60 days late on something, it gets marked “Past Due” on your credit report, and that looks terrible. Should something arise to where you can’t pay in a timely fashion, get a hold of your creditors immediately and seek to work out an arrangement of some kind. If there are mitigating factors such as job loss or major illness preventing you from paying, write an explanatory note and send it to the credit bureaus. They’ll put it on your credit report so that people can see your side of the story.
• As mentioned, lots of inquiries into your credit report can lower your score. Remember not to apply online for credit cards just because you saw a good pop-up ad. It’s easy to do, but that doesn’t mean you should do it on a whim. The Visa credit cards you already have (or MasterCard or whichever) are probably sufficient for your needs without getting new ones.
• If you have some bad credit history, work on getting it taken care of. You might open a new account - using a secured credit card application, if necessary - and pay it off regularly and punctually, as a means of establishing some good history to outweigh the bad.

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