| What you do affects your credit score or FICO. Your | | | | * Keep Your Balance on Each Card at or Below 30% |
| ultimate goal should be to improve your overall credit. | | | | of Available Credit |
| First of all, there is no perfect credit score. The | | | | * Make Use of Credit. Do Not Have A Zero Balance |
| average FICO consumer credit score today is right | | | | * Keep Those Cards (Credit Age) |
| around 678. These scores are not affected by race, | | | | It all sounds so simple but in life, we realize that |
| creed, education or religion. They are also individual, | | | | payments can't always be made on time. There is job |
| meaning married couples do not share a score. But | | | | loss, you might move and the bills might not catch up |
| what we must remember is that you can improve | | | | to you, and credit issuers may lower your ability to |
| your credit scores.. in all 3 bureaus. | | | | borrow and push you past the use of 30% of credit |
| The negative effects? Ughhhh Bad Credit. | | | | on any one card. Look, at least 1/3rd of all reports |
| * Foreclosures | | | | have an error in them. Again, forget about the elusive |
| * Bankruptcy | | | | perfect score. You should be asking... how do I |
| * Tax Liens | | | | increase my credit score and what does it need to be |
| * Late Payments | | | | in order to maximize my future buying power? Our |
| * Percent of Credit Use to Available Credit | | | | goal is to get our FICO into the 720+ area. In doing so |
| * Too Many Requests for Credit | | | | and in keeping late payments at the zero level for a |
| * Having No Credit | | | | period of 12 months, you will greatly enhance your |
| So, on a daily basis, what do you need to do to | | | | ability to make future purchases when the need to |
| stabilize or improve your credit score? | | | | borrow money arises. |
| * Make Payments on Time | | | | |