5 Tactics to Improve Your Credit Score This Year

Published on: 03 February 2022 Last Updated on: 12 September 2024

Inflation is up, money is tight, and your credit score is in the gutter. What a way to start the year!

Instead of wallowing in self-pity, it’s time to finally do something about your unfortunate credit score. This January, kick-off an improvement plan to improve your credit score by the time the clock strikes midnight on Dec. 31.

5 Lucrative Ways Improve Your Credit Score:

1. Know What You’re Working With

You can’t fix a problem you can’t see. If you’ve been avoiding checking your credit score for fear of what you’ll find, get over yourself. Now is the time to set aside your pride and review the damage. Your credit score impacts nearly every financial move you make. Working to improve it now, before you consider shopping for a major purchase, can make your life easier.

Pull up your free annual credit report to review the data that’s been reported to the credit bureaus. If you’ve got missed payments, high credit utilization, or too many accounts, take note. Then consider your overall score. Anything under 700 should be seen as an opportunity to improve. Now you’re ready to create your action plan.

2. Take Action Daily

You can make measured improvements on your credit score just by being mindful of your daily actions. If you struggle with overspending, pause before you swipe your card. Consider whether the purchase you’re about to make meets your goals and if you’ve got the money to repay the balance.

If the answer to either is no, resist the urge to buy. Instead, save up for want-based purchases so you can treat yourself without sacrificing financial security.

In an e-commerce age, you probably can’t eliminate plastic from your purchasing repertoire entirely, but you can be smarter about it. Familiarize yourself with different payment options like a credit builder card. These cards are secured by a funds transfer or initial deposit. Every time you pay your bill, your good payment history is reported to the credit bureaus. Over time, this great track record can improve your score.

3. Get Your Budget on Point

The way you spend often dictates how well you can keep up with the demands of your bills. While everyone has core expenses across housing, food, and transportation, it’s essential to manage one’s variable expenses. Sit down with the last two months of your spending history to identify budget busters and trends you’d like to address.

If dining out is a sore spot for your budget, create a system to help you indulge with purpose. Set a dollar amount that you can spend without dipping into cash reserves dedicated for other expenses. Think about why you like to spend in this category and whether there’s another way to fill your cup.

If your real desire is to spend time with friends, pivot to hosting a small potluck dinner once a month. Adjust your spending toward this event, and you just may find you like the results better than gathering at restaurants.

4. Dispute Inaccuracies

Your comprehensive credit report may be telling lies about you. If your careful review identifies inaccuracies in your report, it’s in your best interest to dispute them. Late payments are one of the biggest dings on your credit report. If you’re a reliable payer, it’s only fair to fix any errors in your report.

First, reach out to the company reporting the information to the bureaus to dispute your account status. Then report the error to the credit reporting bureaus. You’ll need to include a dispute form and documentation supporting your case.

This process can take months to resolve, so stay the course on other credit-boosting activities while you wait. Inaccurate reports happen, so it’s important to review your credit report regularly so you can quickly address them.

5. Attack the Two Most Impactful Credit Factors

Put your energy into the most impactful parts of your credit score: on-time payments and credit utilization. Your payment history drives 35% of your credit score. If you have a history of late payments, you’re killing your score. Catch up on missed payments and create a system to help you manage your bills. Set up autopay for your core bills (rent/mortgage, utilities, insurance, etc.) so you can ensure that your obligations are covered.

The second most impactful area of your financial behavior is credit utilization, which makes up 30% of your score. Credit utilization — the percentage of your available credit that you’re using at any given time — signifies how well you manage money. Work to keep your utilization below 30% to earn a good mark from the credit bureaus.

If you can, request a credit limit increase to improve that percentage, but resist the urge to tap into it. Consider making payments toward your balance as you make changes to keep your utilization low.

Creating the Accountability to Stay on Track

Any goal is more achievable when you breathe life into it. So create a vision board of your credit score goals and post it where you can see it daily. Talk about your plan with your friends and family to create an accountability team for your new credit-building habits. Monitor your progress regularly and course-correct if you need to.

The more you interact with your plan and assess your behavior, the more likely you are to be successful. Who knows? After a year of hard work, sacrifice, and intentional effort, your score could even climb from poor to exceptional.

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A Beginners Guide to Investing: Getting Started in 8 Simple Steps

Did you know that 61 percent of people find investing scary or intimidating? This number is even higher when it comes to millennials. Investing in the stock market isn't just something super clever people do. You don't have to be really wealthy to start investing in stocks. But you do need to know what you're doing before you get started. That's why we've put together this beginner's guide to investing. Get started with our guide to investing in 8 simple steps. 1. What is Investing? Instead of just putting your money into your bank account and allowing it to earn interest, an investment is a risk. You're not guaranteed any returns on your investment. Therefore, you have the chance of making a lot of money if you play your cards right. But you also could make a mistake resulting in less money than with which you started. You can even lose it all. There are multiple different kinds of investments you can make. These include: Shares Funds Bonds Property (check out Turner Investment Corporation for a place to start) Whiskey Land Antiques This includes everything from the conventional shares and funds to the less obvious whiskey and antiques. It's basically anything that you believe will increase in value over time. But for our purposes, it's best to focus on the stock market. This involves buying shares in one or more companies to make a profit over time. When most people think of stock markets they imagine lots of young and flashy stock brokers shouting "buy!" and "sell!". But the truth is that it's much more boring than this. It's actually about selecting a number of shares or funds, tracking how they're doing and pulling out when you think it's a good time. 2. Stock Markets and How They Work A stock market is just a place where people come together to buy and sell shares in companies. Each share is listed on what's called an exchange. But how do shares come about? 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8 Factors That Play a Role in How Long-Term Disability Premium Is Calculated

Even if you know how beneficial long-term disability insurance can be, you may not know what to expect as far as rates are concerned. It’s not easy to just throw out a few figures; rates vary from one person to another, and they depend on various factors. Below, we’ll explain some of these factors in greater detail. 1. Your Age As we age, we’re more likely to suffer a long-term disability. Because of that unfortunate fact, insurance rates increase with age. Keep in mind that your cost for long-term disability insurance will never be as low as it is today, and consider purchasing a policy as soon as possible. 2. Your Income In the long-term disability insurance niche, the terminology is a bit misleading; it should really be known as ‘income insurance’. Because it is designed to protect or replace your income, it pays more if you make more. Therefore, rates are higher for those with elevated incomes. In most cases, long-term coverage costs from one to three per cent of your gross yearly income. 3. Whether You Smoke Those who smoke are more likely to become disabled in the future. Not only do they pay more for health and life insurance, but they also pay more for disability coverage as well. If you smoke, consider quitting; if you don’t smoke, don’t start. 4. Your Job As a worker, your long-term disability insurance rate is determined based on your job’s risks or physical demands. For instance, if you’re an office worker, you may pay less than a manual labourer would pay. 5. The Definition of a ‘Disability’ Every policy has a unique definition of the term ‘disability’. Most question whether you can do your previous job, or whether you’re unable to do any work at all. The looser the definition, the more you’ll pay for coverage. A policy covering ‘own occupation’ disabilities will pay out if you can’t do the same work, even if you could hold a different type of job. However, a policy covering the ‘loss of earnings’ will bridge the gap between your pre- and post-disability income. Finally, an ‘any occupation’ policy will only pay out if you cannot perform any type of work. By considering this from Darras Law, you will get the help needed to encourage your insurer to fulfil its obligations. 6. The Potential Payout While your policy’s cost will, of course, depend on your income, not all long-term disability policies pay 100% of what you make. Some pay just a fraction of that amount; the closer the policy comes to a 100% payout, the higher the rate you’ll pay. 7. Elimination Period Length A policy’s elimination period is sometimes referred to as a waiting period. It’s the time that has to pass between the onset of your disability and when the policy starts paying out. A policy may come with a 30-, 60-, or 90-day elimination period, and those with shorter periods will cost more. 8. The Benefit Period A disability insurance policy’s benefit period is the length of time it will pay out following the waiting period. Two- and five-year policies are common, as are lifetime policies and those that pay out until retirement age. The longer the benefit period, the more the policy will cost. In Conclusion Now that you’ve gained an understanding of the factors affecting your long-term disability insurance rates, your next step should be to determine how much coverage you need. While an insurance agent can help you find a new policy, a local disability attorney will help you get the benefits to which you’re already entitled. Read Also: 4 Expert Tips For Finding The Cheapest Insurance For You Your Simple Guide To GAP Insurance Tips For Breaking Into Finance And Banking

How to Dispute an Error on Your Credit Report

Your credit score is one of the most important numbers as far as your finances go. It dictates the rates you get when borrowing a personal loan or line of credit. But it doesn’t stop there; it may have sway over your next job, apartment, or auto insurance policy. When it has so much power over your life, finding an error on your credit report is scary. Something outside your control could impact your score and stand in the way of getting a loan or a new job. With this in mind, it’s prudent you act fast as soon as you spot something wrong. Here’s what to do if you find an error on your credit report: Start a Dispute Each of the three major credit reporting agencies makes it easy to file a dispute. You can go online to start, or you may send a letter in the mail. In either case, you must tell them (in writing) what information is inaccurate. Equifax: Submit a dispute online Experian: Disputes online TransUnion: Start a new dispute Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) you have a right to contest any entry in your report. This means a major credit reporting agency must accept and investigate any complaints filed over inaccurate information. What Do You Need to Send? Before submitting your online dispute or letter, you need to make sure you can prove that inaccurate information doesn’t belong to your file. Check-in with this list to make sure you have everything you need. Personal Information: You’ll need to share identifying information like your name, address, date of birth, and Social Security Number (SSN) to create an inquiry. Disputed Information: You’ll need to explain clearly what items are inaccurate. The Federal Trade Commission recommends enclosing a copy of your report with the wrongful items highlighted. Proof: Perhaps the most important part of your dispute is proof. It can make or break your investigation. Make sure you send anything that supports your case. This may include emails from financial institutions acknowledging payments or a personal loan or line of credit report statement. Just make sure you send copies only, so you can keep the originals for your files. Send a Copy of Your Dispute to Your Furnisher A furnisher is a company that supplied your reporting agency with the faulty information. One example is your personal loan or line of credit report financial institution. Or it could be a utility provider or cell phone carrier. Be Patient It may take a reporting agency between 30 and 45 days to complete their investigation. After this, they’ll let you know their verdict within another five days. If they don’t agree with you, they’ll explain why. If it’s because your dispute is frivolous, it means you didn’t send enough proof to show the items are inaccurate. If they agree that the items are inaccurate, they’ll reach out to the financial institution that furnished them with the information in the first place. This may take another month or so before you see changes in your report. All in all, it can take a while before your report goes back to normal. With this in mind, it’s key to send your dispute off as quickly as possible. Follow these tips above and visit IdentityTheft.gov. These resources will help you handle your error to the best of your ability. Read Also: Are Debt Consolidation Loans Recommended for Credit Card Consolidation Panini Spa: The Importance of Secure Transactions and Identity

5 Tactics to Improve Your Credit Score This Year