The How and Why for Establishing a Good Credit Rating
Friday, December 16th, 2011Most of us know that it’s a great idea to have the best score you can, but few people understand the how or the why of it. Establishing a good credit rating is going to make your financial life so much easier that everything you do—applying for a loan, a credit card, trying to rent an important or buy a home-is going to be a completely different experience than it was before. When you have a bad rating, nothing, or something great you have three completely different life experiences when it comse to your finances. Your score comes up when you go to apply for insurance, loans, cards, rentals, and even some jobs. When you have a bad financial history, you’re going to get turned for these things, and when you do get accepted, you will have to pay very high interest rates that will cost you a lot of money. When you have no history for companies to look at, you will be treated in a very similar manner because they just won’t know what to think of you-you’re a wild card. When you have established yourself on a high place on the credit score range, companies will want to work with you. They will accept you easily, and the higher you are, the better interest rates they will offer you. When employers decide to look at your history, they’ll see that you are a responsible person, and it’s just one more thing to help make your life that much easier.So that covers the why, now onto the how! If most companies don’t want to work with someone without an established history, how do you build one in the first place? Well, you look at products that are made specificaly for this, like a secured credit card. You can find these at most banks, and are made specifically with the idea of doing this. When you’re signing up specifically with the hope of building up a high credit score, you want to check a few things before you sign up. Possibly most importantly, you want to make sure that they report to all three of the credit agencies so that this gets on your report with all three companies. With most banks, you’ll be set up to switch to a more traditional unsecured option after twelve to eighteen months of on time payments. Make sure to pay off your card each month, and use under thirty percent of the limit for your best credit building practices. With a plan for establishing good credit, you’ll be setting yourself up for financial success. You’ll have an easier time getting accepted when you apply for things, and will save money on interest rates.