How to Increase Your Credit Rating by Paying Your Credit Card Bills on Time
Paying your credit card bills on time each month is the best way to repair your overall credit and keep you credit worthy and in good standing with lenders. There are several ways to increase your credit rating so that it will be easier for you to walk in to a bank or apply online for a credit card and receive an approval and a good lending rate.
If you pay most of your credit cards online each month be advised that there is an allotted time that many credit card companies require you to pay days in advance for the payment to post on or before the due date. Failure to make the payment before the due date will result in a late payment and applicable fees and charges will be applied to your credit card balance. The more payments you make late, the harder it will be to repair your credit down the road with that credit card company. Until you are familiar with each company’s policies with paying online, make sure you allow up to a week in advance for your payment to reach the credit card company before you pay each month.
Make sure that when you pay your bills in person you pay them on or before the due date. Failing to do so will result in having to repair your credit further down the road. The effects of not paying your bills on time will have ramifications that will last month’s even years.
Mail in your payment up to ten days before the due date to avoid late fees and to assure that the bill arrives on time and can be processed by the lender in the proper allotted time. One way to repair your credit is by making sure that the payments you mail in are enough to pay the full balance down or at least make sure they include minimum payment amount.
Pay down high end balances every month to ensure that your credit rating stays high. If you are unable to do this, try paying your minimum amount with an amount that is more than the finance charge each month, although this won’t eliminate finance charges it will make it feel like you are paying down your balance a little faster than just making a minimum payment each month and not getting your balance lowered as fast as you would like. By making a short term goal of paying down high end balances each month you will ensure not having to repair your credit down the road and by doing that you will increase your credit rating.
If you happen to miss a payment or the payment gets sent out late, the first thing you should do is to call your lenders for help; this will help to repair your credit. Many times if you are a good standing customer, they will waive the late fee so your balance stays within its limit.
By avoiding having a derogatory mark on your credit report, this will lead to properly repairing your credit so you can have more leverage with lenders.
Joseph Feross
http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles/how-to-increase-your-credit-rating-by-paying-your-credit-card-bills-on-time-707139.html
February 25th, 2010 at 6:45 am
What happens if you really can't pay your credit cards off anymore?
It’s a vicious cycle.. you have a LOT of debt and the more debt you have, the more and more it becomes because of interest rates, the increasing monthly payments, etc. What happens if you literally made a mistake (didn’t purchase any frivolous things or go on vacations, buy cars, etc.) and you just can’t pay anymore? You lose your house too, in a short sale or foreclosure because, again, you just made mistake after mistake and buried yourself deeper and deeper. What happens to you? Your business (self employed) also suffered for a long time, and you’re still not back on your feet. Can people really give you a hard time for just plain bad luck/judgement? The stuff on the cards is literally like.. groceries, sometimes rent, mechanic, insurance, other credit card bills, utitiles, etc.. It’s just added up over the years. Oh ya, and at least 10k spent on renovations, as well as at least 10k in loans (to a relative that never paid almost any of it back)..
February 25th, 2010 at 11:47 am
yup, most credit card users will have that to say!
Well, if you really cant pay off your credit card bills anymore, you should promptly contact your credit officers and write in with a proposal of how much you can afford to pay every month. When that happens, the Bank would probably freeze your spending limit and all you have to do is just pay off the monthly sum that uve proposed and been accepted by the bank.
One of my collegue just did that & she’s a happy women now!
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February 25th, 2010 at 11:49 am
Credit card companies do not care what you spent the money on they just want it back.
If you do not pay several bad things will happen.
First your accounts will go to collections and they will hound you day and night.
If you do not pay, they can take you to court and get a judgment, at that point they can attach bank accounts, garnish wages (if your State allows it) and file liens on any property you may own like cars, boats, land and homes.
All of this activity will show on your credit report for 7-years making it very hard to get any other type of loans without massive down payments, paying huge fees and State maximum interest rates.
I would suggest that you contact Consumer Credit Counseling Service at 1-800-388-2227 they are the largest and oldest non profit credit counseling service in the Country, I used them several years ago and was debt free in 36-months.
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Finance Manager for over 7-years.
February 25th, 2010 at 11:51 am
Credit card companies are not compassionate, they want their payment on time and that’s it. You are responsible for your actions and nobody else, so better get a second job and try to make as much payments as possible if you don’t want to lose everything. And why did you make renovations when you didn’t have the money? The worst case will be to go bankrupt but nobody really wants that, so stop renovating.
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February 25th, 2010 at 11:53 am
They come after you forever.
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