| Are you finding that financial institutions have gone | | | | sure all the information held on file is correct. If there |
| from practically throwing money at people regardless | | | | are mistakes, you can have them rectified. You can |
| of whether they could afford to repay it or not, to not | | | | also see if you have any old accounts that are still |
| lending anybody anything. | | | | active but you thought had been closed. We often |
| There should be a happy medium but as yet the | | | | clear the balance on a credit card but forget to cancel |
| banks and credit card companies don't appear to have | | | | the account. Go through all of your open accounts and |
| found it. Add to that the fact that the three different | | | | get rid of the ones you don't use anymore. |
| bureaus all calculate your score slightly differently and | | | | Don't apply for more credit until you have your current |
| the lenders do it a different way again, it is easy to | | | | arrangements fully under your control. Try to reduce |
| see how you can become confused. | | | | the balances outstanding. If you have made regular |
| So what is a good credit score? If possible you should | | | | payments on all your commitments, then contact each |
| be aiming for the 700 to 800 level as the higher your | | | | lender to see if they will offer you a better interest |
| number the easier it will be to obtain future credit and | | | | rate. The lower the charges you are paying, the |
| the lower your interest rate. | | | | further your money will go and you will get out of debt |
| Most people would have had no issue scoring this a | | | | sooner. |
| couple of years ago but now the goal posts have | | | | You should also concentrate on repaying just one card |
| been moved. Lenders are far more likely to examine | | | | keeping the minimum monthly payments going on the |
| your file and they get nervous if they see too many | | | | others. You can either pick the card with the highest |
| recent searches as it suggests you have tried to | | | | interest rate and pay all additional money into this one. |
| obtain finance from other places. They also get jittery | | | | This is the sensible option as you will reduce your |
| if your existing credit agreements have not been well | | | | overall charges. But sometimes we can have a small |
| maintained. Late payments or arrears raise big red | | | | balance on a card - if we get this one cleared we |
| flags. | | | | have scored a small victory in our battle against debt |
| You should check your annual credit score to make | | | | which will spur us on to great achievements. |