Improving your credit, or FICO, score by even 50 points can save you hundreds of dollars per month in lower payments. This is because your credit score directly determines the interest rate at which lenders charge you for auto loans, mortgages, and credit cards. A better score can also make you eligible for many special rates and promo offers that you may not even be seeing right now because you are not on the right mailing lists due to a less-than-impressive score.
Here are 5 secrets for getting a better credit score faster.
Secret #1: Order you credit reports right away:
There are two reasons to order your credit reports today from all three of the Big Three credit reporting bureaus: finding out your credit score and checking for identity theft. You can get your initial credit report for free on the Internet. And, there are a number of companies online that will monitor your scores, flagging problems and keeping you abreast of sudden changes. Caution: if you find any errors on your report, get them fixed immediately.
Secret #2: Make your payments on time:
A full 35% of your FICO score reflects your payment history. The unfortunate thing about...