Anyone know of a good way to improve your credit score?

The answers just keep piling, and most of them just don't make any sense....

Figures...

Here's the real...

In order to fix your credit, you should know how your credit is scored and how it affects you

1. Payment history- 35%
2. Total debt owed to avialable credit ratio-30%
3. Length of time establishing credit-15%
4. Types of credit established-10%
5. Inquiries and New accounts-10%

With that said, there's 2 things when it comes to bad debts and collection items that you should be aware of, the FCRA and statute of limitations. These are 2 diffferent things. The FCRA(Fair Credit Reporting Act) is the timeframe that negative items can remain on your report which is 7Â½ years from the date it first went deliquent. For example if a debt first became delinquent July 10, 2000 the legal limit that the debt can be reported would be January 10, 2008. Also, there is a seperate statute of limitations that varies by state on how long a debt can be legally enforced. This is different from the FCRA, because depending on which state you live in the statute may or may not expire before the FCRA.

here's a link for that

http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/statuteLimitations.shtml

Another important thing to know is that negative items that are less than 2 years old are hurting your score the most. It's possible that you can settle much older debts for far less in exchange for getting them removed from your report altogether. This is called a "pay to delete". I posted several links explaining this in detail

http://www.creditinfocenter.com/debt/settle_debts.shtml

http://www.creditinfocenter.com/debt/neg_rating_after_settle.shtml

http://www.creditinfocenter.com/debt/CanCreditorSue4SettlementDifferences.shtml

http://www.creditinfocenter.com/debt/ActualDebtSuccesses.shtml

http://www.creditinfocenter.com/debt/debt-negotiation.php

Another thing that you can do if you haven't already is open new credit. Some major banks (Bank of America, Wells Fargo, USBank, Orchard Bank) and some credit unions offer secured credit cards, which are credit cards that require a deposit to establish credit. Whatever you deposit would be the credit line, for example, if you deposited $300, then your credit line would be $300. The deposit isn't used to pay for what's purchased on the card, you would still need to either pay in full or make monthly minimum payments. The deposit is used only if the account becomes delinquent and goes to collections. A couple of good things is that you can increase the credit limit by adding to the deposit, which can help your score because it creates a much needed cushion between the total debt that's owed and the available credit, and also the deposit is sometimes linked to a savings account which earns interest while you're building credit, so the deposit isn't just sitting there. A good way to build credit with the card is to make small purchases ($20/month max) and pay it off on time every month, while adding to the deposit. Usually after a year or so, of paying it off on time, the card either converts to a regular card or it's upgraded to a better card, and most importantly the deposit isn't needed anymore and it's given back. My suggestion would be to open another secured card and repeat the process or open 2 at a time, which would speed things up. If you make small purchases, pay it off and increase the limits, that will really help your score. In the end, you'll have 2 credit cards with decent limits and an emergency fund from the deposits.

Also, you should enroll with PRBC. PRBC is America's Alternative Credit Bureau, providing a helpful service to the over 50 million people with limited or no credit history. If you pay your monthly bills on time, PRBC can help you build credit to qualify for a mortgage and better interest rates.On-time payments for the following bills are not reported to the traditional credit bureaus:

Rent
Cable
Phone
Daycare
Insurance
Electric
Natural Gas
Cell Phone

The only time your payments for these bills are reported to the other credit bureaus is if they're missing or late.With PRBC, your on-time payments count. You build credit for paying your bills on time, even if you have no credit history. PRBC also has teamed up with Fair Issac, the maker of the FICO credit score that the majority of the lenders use to create the FICOÂ® Expansion Score which takes PRBC reports into consideration with regular credit scores.

n closing, just a few more things to keep in mind.

-Don't spend more than 30% of your combined available credit on all your cards.

-Only apply for credit when necessary.

-Pay on time

Hope this helps...

Thanks for reading and...

Good luck!