The credit score bogeyman has been around for decades now, and it is more and more in the public conscience. If you don’t pay your bills on time, if your loans are not paid on time, if you have a heavy overdraft every month – all of these will reflect on your credit history and the resulting bad credit can haunt your financial dealings for decades.
If that sounds like an exaggeration, think again. Unfortunately, for the vast majority of people who have bad credit scores this is the reality. Having bad, or even mediocre, credit scores can have a lifelong impact that will be reflected in all your major financial transactions.
Fortunately, there are some things you can do mitigate a poor credit history. You can improve your credit score with a lot of patience, some lengthy phone calls and emails to credit bureaus, and general all-around persistence. However, the tragedy is that most people do not know how their credit scores can be improved. To dispel and dissipate the credit score myths, here are a few of the urban legends and hard realities you should know. Between them, you will have many of the tools you need to improve your credit score.
Surprising Fact #1
If you have not applied for credit cards or loans, you will not have a credit history. Not having any past debt at all may seem great, but it’s a bad thing if you want a mortgage or any kind of loan. You need to create your credit history by opening a bank account, setting up an overdraft, using credit cards and so on. In fact, website US NEWS recommends if you have managed to stay completely debt-free to this point, you take on a little now. Even if it’s a credit card you pay off completely each month, it will reflect in your FICO credit score.
Surprising Fact #2
Using your credit cards is a great way to improve and build your credit score. However, this also means that you have to pay off the debt on your credit cards, since credit card debit can lower your score. Essentially, this means you should have a credit card and use it, but make sure that you repay the loan quickly. Delaying your credit card payments can lower your credit score by as much as 45 points. 
You can easily check your credit at Credit Sesame and seek help from the experts on the same.
Surprising Fact #3
Pay all fines, even the small ones to ensure that you don’t get tagged on them. Even though small fines like library late fees and parking tickets are easily forgotten, there is a very good chance that these may be turned over to a collection agency. Some cities like Chicago and Miami are turning over their unpaid parking tickets and library fines to collection agencies already. Collection agencies report these missed fines to the three major credit bureaus, and your credit score takes the hit.
Surprising Fact #5
Ordering new things and using your debit card can lower your credit score. According to Kiplinger, when you order new furniture or pay utilities like TV or Internet, these companies are within their rights to check your credit history before they take you as a new customer. As a result, you’ll get repeated checks on your credit history by many companies. Too many of these checks will result in the three major credit bureaus lowering or deducting points from your history. However, you can reduce the effect of this by paying for these utilities through credit card or check. Utility companies will also have to get your permission before they check your credit history and you can always refuse them permission.
Surprising Fact #6
FICO Scores vary from 300 to 850. To ensure credit health, your score has to range in the upper levels of 700 or more. Most lenders prefer to use VantageScore, and this score ranges from 501 to 990 along with a letter grade from A to F. If you are denied a loan or credit application, your lender has to give the reason for the application along with the score they used and when they got it so that you can verify the details.
Surprising Fact #7
Your income level has no impact on your credit score. The credit bureaus are only worried about how you manage your income and how well you pay off your lenders.
You can always contest your score and improve it with persistence and paperwork. Now that you know how to improve your credit scores, we recommend you check your credit at Credit Sesame. Free websites like this allow you to check your credit history as many times as you want throughout the year. This may seem unnecessary, but it can actually help you catch inaccuracies in your credit reports quickly. You can repair your credit score and get the bad credit score bogeyman off your back that much faster.
Written by Jon the Saver
