Look for any accounts that show a negative status. Note any late payments or credit inquiries. Check to make sure your personal information, such as name and address, phone number, and employer, is all listed correctly. Your payment history is the biggest contributor to your score, so be careful to make payments in a timely manner. Your credit utilization ratio refers to the amount of credit card debt you have in comparison to the credit limit you’re allowed on a particular account. Ideally, you should keep this ratio below 15%, so concentrate on paying down each of your credit card balances accordingly. Your credit utilization ratio affects 30% of the FICO score used by mortgage lenders, so paying down your credit balances can make a significant difference to your credit score. AVOID LETTING YOUR ACCOUNTS GO TO COLLECTION AGENCIES It’s important to realize that paying off an account with a collection agency does not eliminate it fromyour credit report. It will remain on your report for seven years. The best strategy is to make payments regularly so that accounts do not go to collections. If you’ve already been contacted by collection agencies, there is one method you can try to remove those accounts from your record. Contact the collection agencies regarding any of your accounts that have small outstanding balances. Inform the collection agencies that you want to “pay for delete.” This means that in exchange for you paying off what you owe on that account, they’ll eliminate the account from your credit report. Tell the collection agency to send you a pay for delete letter—a written acknowledgment that the collection agency has agreed
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