I took notes during a finance seminar I attended last fall. Hope these ideas will be of interest.

–          A. New accounts. As soon as you get a free card. It will ping your score for 20 points.

–          B. Account seasoning. This refers to many cards that are obtained while Christmas shopping. people accept a credit card to get a discount on an item. When you cancel  that credit card that you only plan to use once it also will ping to score

–          C. The number of accounts of CC also influence score.

–          D. Number of late payments is the biggest driver on your score. Pay special attention to bills paid to the last two years of your account. A maxed out Credit card is when you owe up to 75% of your limit. If you have over 50% owed on the unit credit limit, it will start to make an impact on your score. Suggest you don’t go over 40% of your credit limit on each card to maintain a positive score.

–          At times of Identity theft, you accountable for $50.

–          Credit cards are safer than debit cards.

–          Credit bureaus will scan your rating at different times of the month. They take this random snapshot, not at the times that you pay your bill.

–          It is important for you to check your score. 92% of accounts have some wrong information.

–          Dispute inaccuracies on your record, wrong information will not be removed until you dispute it. If the score center does not get confirmation on the bad data and they have to drop it from the record. Use a certified letter to settle a dispute to the Bureau. The success ratio is higher. You may have to do it twice to make sure that executes correctly taken off. Some people report that when you have something disputed when they remove off a certain record of a certain company, they may wipe off the entire record of that company, including the good. Then you have to show proof of the past record in payments to get the good information back on the record. If you dispute alone or there may be a good chance they are no longer in business, and thus cannot counter your dispute.

–          Things should normally drop off after seven years, but sometimes they are not removed.

–          If you have late payments on your record, and is for business or longer in business. You can dispute the record and it can top off when the defunct company no longer responds.

–          If you have a dispute that is not getting removed, you can arrange for a lawyer to send a pre-drafted letter to have the dispute dropped and in that letter. You provided by paragraph of personal information. This letter cost about $5200. ( I hope this note is correct mg)

–          Store cards that have a visa on it, you might be only used outside the store that you got a for.

–          Car loans are bad on credit, while mortgages or home loans are good on credit.

–          It often takes two months for a mortgage to be transferred to another company which happens a lot. There are some reports that when the transfer is made and you pay a bill on your house. The companies are not properly communicate the payment to the new owner and the new company does not cash or checks. And then your house can go to foreclosure because of lack of payment.

–          Revolving credit. Building up credit is important. That is why sometimes someone will pay for something cash, but will first pay six months on an item, so that their credit improves.

–          Piggybacking. Is when you can add a child or family member on your account. This is a good way to get their credit history begun.

–          If the person that has bad credit shares a credit card with the person has good credit. It can help their score and not hurt the score of the good person.

–          Increasing credit limits. There are two types soft and hard. Period. A hard request is when the credit didn’t exist. Soft inquiry is for pre-existing credit cards. Capital one is the worst company for revolving credit while American Express is good. Zion is known to be a good bank.

–          Bankrate.com has credit card comparisons, so you can see who has the most benefits. This is where you can find cars that offer no pay for six months no interest six months.

–          Joke: Delta: don’t expect luggage to arrive.

Have something to add? Please do so in the comment section of the blog. thanks