A strong credit score can be an essential part of purchasing a new home. In addition to ensuring you’re approved for a loan, a good score can also provide you with more favorable interest rates and other perks. If you wish to purchase San Diego real estate downtown and want to bring up your credit score, follow these tips.
1. Consolidate Your Debts
When calculating credit scores, the total amount of debt you have is not the only thing that matters. You also need to take into consideration how much debt you have. It’s a good idea to owe money to a lower number of organizations. For example, you can get a higher score by using a loan to pay off balances on all other credit cards.
2. Keep Track of Payments
It might not be a quick and easy solution, but the most effective way of raising your score is maintaining reliable, regular records of paying debts on time. Do everything you can to make sure you pay off your bills by the due date. Set up a calendar with reminders if you’re forgetful, and carefully check your finances to make sure you’re not forgetting anything.
3. Build Credit Wisely
If your credit score is low because you have no history, it might be helpful to open one or two credit card accounts and use them for small purchases you pay off immediately. However, this strategy will not work if your score is low due to a lot of debt. Opening several new accounts can make you look like even more of a risk. Having someone check your score temporarily lowers it a notch, so opening a bunch of accounts you don’t need may just make your score look low for a while.
4. Keep Your Debt Utilization Low
Debt utilization is essentially the amount of available credit you use. To keep it low, it’s important to pay off your debt, especially for things like credit cards. Paying off all debt is the ideal way to raise your score, but if this isn’t possible, try to at least pay enough to keep the balance from being no more than 30 percent of your credit limit. Avoiding having maxed-out cards will make your score higher.
5. Let Old Debt Stay on the Report
When people are trying to boost a credit score, many of them start by trying to remove old, paid-off debts from the score. However, this is a bad idea. Any paid-off debt shows you have a history of being responsible and paying your bills, which will end up raising your score, so you need to leave all records of paid bills on the report. A history of reliable payments on old debt is a good way to boost your score.
Once you have achieved a good credit score, it can help you buy the property of your choice. Whether you’re interested in lofts, penthouses, or condos in Little Italy, San Diego is the perfect city to purchase real estate. Reach out to 92101 Urban Living today at 619-649-0368 to get in touch with a reliable real estate agent.