Checking your credit should be something you do on a regular basis, especially if you have loans and use credit cards. Your credit score can jump around as you spend money and as you open more credit accounts. Most people don’t think to check their credit score or get a credit report until it’s too late anyway.
Your credit could affect your ability to get a home, an apartment, buy a car, get a loan, and it could even mess up your ability to get a good job. If you do find that your credit is a little off kilter it is important to repair it immediately. Here are some things that your bad credit is doing to you, and how to get it dealt with immediately.
How To Check Your Credit
If you haven’t checked your credit before it’s not that difficult a thing to do. You can find sites that are completely free, and ones that have a fee. You can get a free annual credit report from some websites, and a site like CreditKarma can actually send you regular updates so you know when something new pops up on your credit report.
It’s also important to understand that there isn’t just one credit report company out there. In fact, there are three different reports you can get, and will want to if you want a chance of seeing everything that is on your credit history. Your report tells you what you need to pay off to get better credit, and a better credit score.
What Your Credit Score Does
Many companies that check a person’s credit look mostly at the score you have as a determining factor on whether or not they are going to work with you. If your score is excellent, 720 or above, you can pretty much get any loan you want if you have the income coming in to back it up. If your score is under 620 you may find it hard to get loans or credit cards.
You can find credit cards for people with poor credit scores, though they usually have low limits, high interest rates, and also yearly fees. However, they also often come with regular updates on your credit score.
Get Back On Track
Once you’ve dealt with any bad reports on your credit score you can get your score to go back up. You might not make it to excellent, but as long as you are moving out of the poor credit range it can open you up to some other opportunities.
It can be hard to buy a house with bad credit, but it can also be difficult to get approved for even an apartment when you have a low credit score. The sooner you fix it the better!