Last Updated on July 15, 2015 by Janell
This information is brought to you by Credit Sesame. All opinions are my own.
We just finished signing papers to buy a new house. But this isn’t something that we just started to think about. Buying a house is a big investment. For the past few years we have known that this was going to be the year that we were going to buy a house. So we have done everything we could to protect our credit rating.
Your credit score is very important when you start the mortgage application. It will tell the mortgage company if you are credit worthy of a loan from their bank. So we did a few things to make sure to protect our credit rating and make sure we could have the highest score possible.
Pay your bills on time – this is a huge factor in your credit score. Make sure you never pay your bills late.
Don’t open up new credit accounts. When you open a new credit line (car loan, credit card, etc) they check your credit score. The more inquiries you have the more your score will drop. If you need to apply for a car loan – do this several months before you begin your mortgage application.
Don’t close old credit card accounts. Just like new credit card inquiries can negatively affect your credit, if you have no credit history this will also lower your credit score. If you have a credit card that has been open for several years, don’t close it. Length of your credit history is an important factor in your credit score.
Pay down your debt. Your debt to credit ratio is another area of importance. Say you have a credit card with a $5000 limit but a $4800 balance, your debt to credit ratio is very high – you barely have any credit available to you. If you have several credit cards with a balance start by paying off the lowest balance and work your way up to the bigger balances until everything is paid off.
You can do everything right – but someone could access your information and quickly destroy your credit history. That is why you should monitor your credit score monthly to make sure nothing has changed. Credit Sesame offers Free Credit Score, Free Credit Monitoring, and/or Free Identity Theft Protection to protect you.
Credit Sesame will track and monitor your credit score, loans and debt information, and then we will let you know how you’re doing. You’ll be able to see your home loans, debt and free credit score all in one place. You can rest assured that your information is secure and is only available to you—it will never be shared with others.
When your identity is stolen, it feels like the world is crashing down on you. Canceling credit cards, correcting errors on your credit report, and taking steps to restore your identity take time. You may not know what to do, whom to contact, or in what order. Because identity theft can have such a dramatic impact on your credit score, it can also affect the credit cards and loans you may qualify for in the future. It may affect your credit worthiness with lenders, a new employer, or even your insurance. With the growing frequency of data breaches like Target and Apple, you shouldn’t wait any longer to protect yourself especially since Credit Sesame now offers credit and identity protection services for free.
Don’t wait until it is too late – be proactive and have Credit Sesame monitor your credit and identity.
What are you doing to protect your Credit Score?