Bankruptcy INK

For this edition of Bankruptcy INK, we’re gonna look at a few ways to work on ensuring you have a better credit rating score, which, in turn, could help get you into a better loan for your car or home, and potentially help you from having to face a financial crisis which could result in a home foreclosure or having to file bankruptcy.

Most mortgage lenders, according to CNN.com, look at your FICO score, which calculates your credit history by looking at how often your payments are made on time, how much debt you have, and what sort of credit cards you have and how you use them.

• Pay off Your Debt
This might seem obvious, but many people only pay minimum balances (and some people don’t pay at all) and that is not going to help your credit rating. Your aim should be to keep your score in the 700s, and the best way to try and remedy your bad history is paying off those high balances on your credit cards.

• Minimize Your Balances
CNN.com says: “Even if you pay your bills off every month, the amount you paid will be listed on your credit report. And if you spend more than 50 percent of your credit limit, that's going to negatively impact your score.”

• Hang onto Older Credit Cards
The longer you hold onto credit accounts and pay them off, the better your credit rating will be. Keep those old cards active and keep paying them on time.