A high debt to credit limit ratio is not a good thing to do on a new loan because it will impact your business credit scores many different ways. By now you should be able to guess at most of them and understand why but let’s go over them just to be sure.

You have an inquiry, at least one and perhaps more and depending on how many and what your credit score is at the time will determine how much it affects your credit scores.

1) You have a new loan.
2) You have no history on this new loan.
3) It has a high balance.
4) It has a high debt to credit limit ratio. These reasons alone can cause your credit scores to drop significantly that you should be concerned about doing so.

The solution is to get a high enough credit limit on revolving accounts that you won’t need to use more than 45% of available credit on your account. If it is an installment loan, then the impact will be less felt but still have a significant impact on your credit scores. The solution here would be to pay down the loan to less than 80% debt to credit limit as soon as possible. I have one friend who will borrow more than is needed on his loan so that when the loan closes, he pays down the loan 20% to have his debt to credit limit at 80% as soon as possible. This will minimize the impact on his credit scores and keep his scores higher than someone who doesn’t do this. For those who need to keep their credit scores as high as possible for business reasons or for investing, this is a great strategy to use. It takes some money management and if your credit scores are high to begin with, then you stand a great chance of being able to qualify for the higher credit limit to use this plan. To your success…

Credit is a tricky subject because we don’t have the secret key that unlocks the proprietary information or formula of the credit bureaus and Fair Isaac Corporation. They created the scoring modules that are in use today to create credit scores on the information in your credit file. However, through exhaustive research and intensive study, we have come to see the secrets and tricks the credit bureaus use and understand how it works… almost.

Because there are hundreds of factors involved in creating a scoring module and how it affects the information in your credit file, it is difficult to ascribe a perfect number of points to what a tip or strategy will do to increase or decrease your credit score. However, this much we absolutely do know… that if you do follow the tips and strategies in this book then you will see a rise or fall in credit points depending on if the action is a good action or a bad action on your part.

Take heed to read the tips and strategies and relate them to your own credit file and the information contained in it. Read it, get to know it and then read the strategies to use to get your scores going up instead of down. This will help you get the highest scores possible and create an opportunity for a great financial future . Now, go and get start and remember, that Every Point Counts!

There are 5 areas of importance in the scoring modules of the credit bureaus.

They are:

1 – Bill payment history – 35% of your score is attributed to this section.

2 – Account Balances – 30% of your score is attributed to this section.

3 – Length of time opened – 15% of your score is attributed to this section.

4 – New Accounts – 10% of your score is attributed to this section.

5 – Types of credit used – 10% of your score is attributed to this section.

Terms:

Creditor = the company that extended the credit to you.

Payee = the company that you make the payments to.

Payer = this is you, the person that makes the payment to the company (Payee) that you owe.

Opportunities for credit come in the mail if you are doing certain things or member of certain organizations. I have found that if you are going to school, you are a target for credit card repair companies to send you multiple offers in the mail. You are gaining an education and are going to have more money earned to pay for things than those people who do not go to school, college or university.

If you join a frequent flyer organization, even if you don’t fly very often or at all, this will put you on a list of preferred offers from credit card companies to offer you opportunities to apply for their credit cards.

Opportunities come in a wide variety with multiple interest rates, pay back plans, credit limits and penalties if late or over limit. I am finding that credit card companies put in the fine print that they can check your credit when ever they feel like it and if they see your credit score drop below a certain point, that they determine, they can increase your interest rate from that nice 6% you started with to 19, 24 or even 29%. The highest I have seen an interest rate is 33%. I suppose this could go even higher if the credit card companies can get away with it.

It would be important to compare the differences in credit cards not only for interest rates, credit limits and penalty factors, but also for rewards for purchases and length of time with the company. There are cards that give you cash back or cards that give your flight rewards. Some will give you products to choose from a catalogue. If you don’t fly much, then getting a card with flight rewards may not be the best plan for you. Get one that fits your life style and remember to get that card paid off every month or you will be paying for every penny of the “reward” you are getting rather than have it be a great asset for you by paying your card off every month.

New loans are a great way to establish credit when they are used correctly. However, when a new loan has a late on it, you will have several different problems associated with it. First of all, what are you doing with a new loan and then having a late?  Don’t, it costs you a ton of points.  Here’s why… It’s new (1), it has no history (2), it has a balance (3), it has a late (4), and you had an inquiry to get the new loan (5).

The solution is to not have a new loan with a late attached to it. It shows that you can’t control your finances and so it will hit you harder than if you had a late on an old established account.  It’s just good practice to always pay your bills on time as suggested in Secret # 1.  But now that you have a late on that new account, it’s best to delete the account or get the late repaired.  Refer to the Credit Repair Tip section to see what needs to be done to get negative items removed from your credit report.