Improve Your Credit Health

Make your credit health a priority by assessing your credit and determining where you can make improvements. Set yourself up for success. Identify financial goals and outline clear steps to achieve them.

Resolve to Make Payments On Time

Set up a system and strive to pay your bills on time and in full. 

  • Set up automatic payments on  accounts 
    Payments will be automatically withdrawn from your account, meaning you never run the risk of a forgotten bill.
  • Align payment dates with pay check dates
    Review payment due dates for your accounts. If an important bill is due right before you receive your pay check, contact the creditor to see if your due date could be adjusted to coordinate with your pay check date.
  • Set reminders for bill payment due dates
    Mark your calendar for dates when your payment must be made.  If you send your payment through the mail, note the mailing date so that your payment is received by the creditor on time.
  • Contact the creditor to request deferment
    If you know that you won’t be able to make a loan payment on time, contact the lender before the due date passes. The lender may allow you to defer payments until your financial situation improves. A deferment still appears on your credit report, but a deferment doesn’t reflect as negatively as a default.

Resolve to Reduce Debt

Determine a set amount that you can put toward debt payoff each month.

Identify a set time period to pay off specific debts. With focus and discipline, small manageable payments will help achieve your goal. Also, these regular on time payments show responsibility to creditors.

Improve Your Credit Score & Credit Report

A credit score is derived from a formula of your payment history, length of credit, type of credit and credit usage.  It is an indicator of how likely you are to pay your bills on time.  Scores range from 300 to 850.  A lower score means that you may be a higher risk to a prospective lender, resulting in a credit denial or unfavorable credit terms for a loan.

An accurate credit report may raise your credit score.

You can get a free credit report from each of the three main credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion, every twelve months. Check your report regularly to ensure that all information is accurate and up to date. If there are errors, dispute them by sending a letter directly to the credit bureaus. Your letter should include documents, such as an account statement or cancelled check, that proves why the error should be corrected.

In addition, you may want to write to the creditor to dispute a credit report error. Show a copy of your report and state why the listing is incorrect.  Request the creditor write the credit bureau to correct the listing.

Seek Free Legal Help

Flitter Milz is a nationally recognized consumer protection law firm representing victims with credit reporting accuracy and privacy issues. Contact us for a free legal evaluation to determine whether your consumer rights have been violated by the credit bureaus, debt collectors or lenders.