Establish, Raise and Maintain Your Credit Score In 4 Easy Steps.

As the housing market evens out at the tail end of a countrywide recession, many people continue to search for mortgage and loan guidance and availability. It takes a long time to establish decent credit; however, that decent credit score can quickly and easily be ruined by a number of things.

In order to establish credit, one needs to do little more than maintain a bank checking account and establish a line of credit in which all payments are timely and minimal, at least. Years of making on-time payments, for things as simple as doctor’s bills to complicated car payments, build a good credit history and report that any lender would like to see.

But life happens, and if you need to improve your credit score, it can be done so in a fairly quick manner, relatively speaking. There are just a few things you need to do in order to start improving your credit score and improving your chance of obtaining a loan.

• According to Forbes, the first thing you should do to improve your credit score is get a detailed summary of your credit history. This allows you to evaluate anything that you might want to dispute, and the opportunity to pay off debts or negotiate payment.
• If you don’t already have a credit card, obtain one. Make sure that all current limits are just that – current and up-to-date. If you don’t qualify for a traditional card, look to getting a secure card or becoming an authorized user on a friend or family members’ line of credit.
• However, it does not good simply to have the card. Sure, that will start you off, but you have to use your cards! Forbes suggests using a particular card for automatic bill pay, for necessities such as utilities bills, and underuse them for everything else.
• Lastly, it is important to pay your bills on time and, if able to, twice a month. A good credit score is considered above 700, with many mortgage holders reporting a credit score above 800, according to Forbes.