Many people often talk about wanting to increase their credit scores. Some will pay off their credit cards in full every month, others will choose not to use their credit at all. Before we can go about trying to increase our credit rating, we must first understand how Debt is calculated.
5 Main Criteria For Calculating Debt
- 35% based on how you repay bills
- 30% based on how much of your available credit you are using
- 15% based on time, how long have you had credit
- 10% based on the type of credit you have
- 10% how many times you seek your credit per year
Tips:
- Do not check your credit more than 3-4 times per year. Anything higher than that amount can drastically change your score from good to bad.
- When you do check your credit, your score is affected the first time you inquire. After that it will not be affected if you are shopping around for the same product.
- Make sure to repay your bills on time, because late payments can really drop your score over time. Also late payments may increase your interest rates, and decrease the chances of having your credit limits increased.
- If you forget to pay your bills on time, create a pre-authorized payment directly from your bank account and have them paid automatically.
- Try to not spend more than 30% of your available credit.
By Issac Jirjis
