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When I wanted to purchase a home 5 years ago, I thought all I needed was a stable job and good credit. Not having any credit cards, or other debt, I thought my credit was perfectly fine – it wasn’t. It wasn’t “bad” per se, my Realtor told me, it was just non-existent and therefore, not good enough to purchase a home.
While I didn’t go through the process of trying for a loan, every year millions of Americans are denied loans for homes due to errors on their credit reports. Those errors can take about four months to correct. In my case, I haven’t been trying to correct bad credit, I’ve been trying to establish good credit and there are a few things I’ve done during the pandemic to help keep me on track.
Used my credit card for purchases
It would be easy to no longer use my credit card, and simply pay with cash or use my debit card, but my lack of credit cards was actually an issue the Realtor mentioned. I actually used them more during the pandemic because I would be losing out. Losing out on the cashback rewards my credit card offers and losing out on continuing to show the card company I’m still a good credit risk. The motto “use it or lose it” also applies to credit cards and I didn’t want to risk my credit card limit decreasing or the card being closed altogether with no usage.
To make sure it’s helping, not hurting my credit, I keep a money date with myself every Friday to pay the card for whatever I charged that week. This ensures I’m not paying interest fees. I, then, use the card for a small purchase before the statement ending date that keeps my utilization low but still shows a healthy utilization is happening.
Corrected all incorrect information on my files
I’d never paid much attention to my “regular” information on my credit reports but it can certainly make a difference. I noticed my reports had my job listed as the one I was laid off from prior to the pandemic and my home address was showing an address I hadn’t lived at in years. No, these things don’t directly change my score but they do help to identify who I am and if something is in fact linked to me. Which leads me to the thing that, likely, had the most impact.
Questioned things that shouldn’t be there
When I was first starting out on my own, I’d gotten cable television and, after I decided I didn’t need it and would rather save the money, I got rid of it. I was under contract and made sure to provide my final check to the technician along with the equipment when he came to pick it up. I received a written receipt and held on to it in the kitchen “junk” drawer we all have. Wouldn’t you know, about a year later I had a collections account appear on my credit reports for that very cable company. In that situation I learned the value in keeping receipts and just because it’s listed on your credit report, doesn’t mean it should be there.
Acts, like the Fair Credit Reporting Act, give consumers the legal right to dispute inaccurate items on their credit reports with the credit bureaus and individual creditors and this year, I had 3 things in particular that shouldn’t have been on my report. One of them was something past the 7 year statute of limitations and the other 2 were medical collections that I’d actually paid the hospital for years ago and, again, had my hospital receipts and confirmation numbers for.
I went all of this alone but the professionals at Lexington Law Firm are there to help you along in your credit journey. They’re the oldest, most respected name in credit, their professionals know consumer protection laws, and they are going to fight for your rights to fair credit reporting.
Have you done anything different during the pandemic to improve your credit?
