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Top tips to improve your credit score
1.Review your credit report at least once a year2.Contact your creditors or the credit reportingagency to have errors on your credit profilecorrected3.Apply for credit only when you need it
4.
Keep balancesbelow 50%on your credit cards  5.Pay off non-mortgage debt on time as quicklyas possible
How Credit Scores Affect Your Mortgage Rates in Canada
Ask any Canadian who has gone through the home buying process what score ismore important – last night’s NHL results or their Beacon Score – and they’ll mostlikely respond, “the Beacon Score of course!”. The reason being that a Beacon Scoreis one of the credit scores that lender’s use to measure a borrowers’ risk based on avaluation of their financial history including details on credit cards, charge cards,loans, mortgages and overall payment history.In Canada, 3 private company’sgenerate almost all the credit scores –Equifax, Trans Union and Experian.Though all 3 bureaus offer FICO (FairIsaac Credit Organization) scores usingthe formula developed by Fair and Isaac,each has its own brand name - Equifaxcalls it the Beacon Credit Score, TransUnion has the FICO score and Experianuses the Fair, Isaac Risk Model.A high credit score is an important factorin applying and securing the mortgageand mortgage rate of your choice. Italso makes it easier for an individual to get credit cards and loans on favorableterms, sometimes even with instant approvals. The higher your score, the lower theinterest rate! The difference between a good and bad score can increase the cost of aloan by 3% or more.Equifax is the most popular credit score used by lenders and results range from 300to 900. The break-up is as follows:
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35% of the total score is based on payment history
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30% is the amount owed and the available credit
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15% is for length of credit history
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10% is for types of credit used
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10% is for search and acquisition of new credit and inquiriesA common misperception is that all inquiries will negatively impact your scoreinstantly. The reality is that this may happen but its not a given and depends onyour overall credit profile. The first inquiry can result in a drop of 5 to 20 points onthe first mortgage inquiry, and will usually have a larger impact on the score forconsumers with limited credit history and on consumers with previous late payments,but it’s different in every case.
Factors that affect your credit score
1. You have a short credit history
Age of your credit on revolving or non-revolving accounts also affects your creditscore. Revolving accounts are credit cards such as Visa, MasterCard, or retail storecard that allow you to make a minimum monthly payment and "revolve" theremainder of their balance over to the next month.
 
Non-revolving accounts include cards such as American Express and Diners Club andmust be paid off in full each month.Research shows that consumers with longer credit histories have better repaymentrisk than those with shorter credit histories. Also, consumers who frequently opennew accounts have greater repayment risk than those who do not.If you can maintain low balances and make sure your payments are on time, yourscore should improve as your revolving credit history ages.
2. You’ve been looking for credit in the past year
If you’ve been recently been seeking credit, this is evident on your credit file basedon the number of inquiries in the past 12 months. Research shows that consumerswho are seeking new credit accounts are riskier than consumers who are not seekingcredit.There are both credit and non-credit inquiries on the report and the score onlyconsiders those related to credit applications. Inquiries such as your bank reviewingyour account or you requesting a copy of your own report are not considered.The scores can identify "rate shopping" so that one credit search leading to multipleinquiries being reported is usually only counted as a single inquiry. It’s been reportedthat for this to occur the person making the inquiry must use Equifax's "mortgagecode" when requesting your credit score (ie. "FM" is in your Equifax membernumber).For most consumers, a few inquiries on your credit file has a limited impact on FICOscores and the best advice is to only apply for credit when you need it.
3. Not paying off your loans
If you have installment loans and owe money on them, this does not mean you are ahigh-risk borrower. Paying down these installment loans is very positive as it showsthat you are willing and able to manage and repay debt, and a successful repaymenthistory is good for your credit rating.One measurement is to compare outstanding loan balances against the original loanamounts. If you took out a $1,000 line of credit 1 year ago and still owe $925, thisshows that you may be having trouble paying off the debt. Generally, the closer theloans are to being fully paid off, the better the score. This metric has limitedinfluence on the FICO score.Paying off loans on a timely basis reflects well on your credit score, but if you reallywant to improve it, try to pay the loans, (especially non-mortgage debt) as quicklypossible.
4. Non-mortgage debt is too high
Consumers with larger credit amounts have a greater future repayment risk thanthose who owe less, resulting in the score measuring how much non-mortgagerelated debt you have.
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alliedtrustdiamond

There are literally hundreds of credit repair websites and a lot of them try to guarantee success but the reality is most of them are just a waste of money. They use methods of repairing your credit you can do yourself if you simply google credit repair templates. Their process is very lengthy and requires months and even years to get a lot of things removed and sometimes the bad marks can come back as some companies are very persistent, especially if you still owe them money. The only guaranteed method to repair your credit is to pay off the old bills and get your derogatory balances to $0. "Well that isn't very helpful" is probably what you are saying. Since none of us just have cash laying around to do that there are other things you can do that are guaranteed to increase your FICO score practically overnight and start rebuilding your credit. It's actually very simple. Sign up for Millennium Secured Credit Card and send them $300. Buy $90 worth of groceries on it and make the payments. Keep the balance under $90. Then sign up for www.alliedtrustdiamond.com and get a $10,000 unsecured credit card, buy something and make the payments. Do a google search for USA Shopping Club and sign up with them for $12,500 unsecured credit card buy something and make the payments, Eclub USA and get your $3,500 credit card and finally Horizon Gold and get your $500 credit card. Once all of these companies report to the credit bureaus you are going to see an immediate increase in your FICO score. Guaranteed. Then you can work on getting the bad marks paid off and removed. It's much easier to get them permanently deleted if you don't owe them any more money.

reply06 / 05 / 2009
alysaally

Its very informative and interesting. Thanks for sharing this information.

reply10 / 20 / 2008
spinoza4

i will keep checking back your document

reply09 / 22 / 2008
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